To Prove Myself
by Crazy Mary-J
Summary: Five months after Ultimecia's demise, Squall and Rinoa decide to break up. Two weeks later Seifer barges in the new Headmistress' office demanding to be accepted back into to Garden. SeiferXSquall WARNING! Eventual YaoiSlash Rated R for later chapters
1. This is the right thing

**_Disclaimer :_**_ Okay, you read the summary right? This will eventually be SLASH… meaning there will be two hot boys shagging in the future. I don't even know what the #$% you're doing here if you already read the summary, but just keep your negative comments to yourself when the Yaoi comes, because you were warned!_

_I do not own any of these characters (DUH!) nor am I making any profit from this story (DOUBLE DUH!)_

_I hope you enjoy this story!!_

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**Chapter 1**

**This is the right thing**

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"Are you sure this is the right thing, Squall?"

He sat on his bed silently, his hands folded between his knees, as if deep in thought. His unruly chestnut locks fell before stormy eyes as he kept his head bowed down, staring at his feet. "Yes, Rinoa…" Squall answered, his fiery blue eyes finally meeting her warm dark ones as he raised his head at the standing young woman.

"You're right…" she smiled sweetly at him. "It was good while it lasted, but I don't think this relationship would have worked any longer. We like a lot of different things and… my life is in Timber. I miss it so much over there…" her head fell as she looked down at her feet.

Squall had never been good with words and it had not yet changed even after being with Rinoa for five months since the defeat of Sorceress Ultimecia. When he had rescued Rinoa from the Sorceress Memorial as she was about to be sealed away; had held her in his arms for those few moments, Squall had been certain that Rinoa had been his one true love. But when the threat of the evil Sorceress had finally been vanquished, giving the couple the possibility of living a real relationship, the young man had soon realised their relationship would not work out in the end.

The dark haired girl had helped him to slightly open up to people; had helped him find out things about himself; had even helped him to overcome some of his fears and for those things, Squall was grateful.

Rinoa was someone he felt he could talk to without the fear of being judged, but the young woman was sometimes too pushy when it came to his being silent. She tried to make him talk about _everything_ that was on his mind _all the time_ and he could not stand it. Squall needed more privacy than she was ready to give him. He liked being quiet even though he _had_ become friendlier to people.

There were other reasons though; more physical reasons… even after five months Squall had always felt uncomfortable when it came time to be affectionate towards his girlfriend for many reasons for which he still had not found the answers to. They had only snuggled close and kissed passionately a few times and Squall knew he disappointed Rinoa with his lack of enthusiasm yet could do nothing to comfort the young woman since he could not change who he was.

"And there's something else too…" Rinoa's voice pulled him out of his thoughts. "I want to work things out with _that man…_ my father…" she had looked deeply into Squall's eyes while saying those words, as if searching for reassurance.

"Oh…" the wild haired young man stood up from his bed, his eyes gazing at the clouds that floated about outside of the window of his room.

Squall suddenly felt two warm arms encircling his waist as Rinoa pressed her body to his, burying her face in his chest. Squall enclosed his arms around her frail shoulders loosely, unable to return the emotions the young woman was expressing in her strong embrace.

They stood holding each other for a short moment before Rinoa finally looked up at him, her soft black hair brushing her bare shoulders as she raised her head.

"I'm going to miss you Squall, you know?"

Squall gave one of his rare smiles. "I know…" he answered softly. "This is the right thing. Go find your father and go back to Timber, where you're happy."

A wide grin spread across her soft lips. "Thank you so much for understanding!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands together cheerfully as she pulled away from him. "Hey! Maybe now that I'm a Sorceress and all I can finally bring Timber's Independence with my super powers!" she winked and chuckled.

She stepped further away from Squall. "Well, I guess this is it… I wonder how everyone will react when we tell them?" She brought a finger to her chin in thought.

The stormy eyed young man simply shrugged, which made Rinoa's grin widen.

Quickly, the raven haired girl pushed herself to the tip of her toes planting a soft kiss on Squall's lips.

And so the couple shared their last kiss…

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TBC…

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**_Author's n_****_ote:_** _Yes this was quite a short Chapter, but it was just a short intro to what will happen next, ya know? Also, I didn't feel it would be appropriate to make Rinoa being all bitchy with Squall 'cause of the break up and stuff… I mean I may not like Rinoa very much, but she seems to me like a sweet, comprehensive person none the less… that's how she seemed to me when she approached Squall 'n stuff… Anyways, I hope you read my other chapters and that you enjoyed this one!!_


	2. What the HELL is going on?

**Chapter 2**

**What the_ hell_ is going on?**

"Oh! Squall… you're already here?" the new Headmistress of Balamb Garden smiled at her SeeD Commander as he walked inside her office quietly.

Xu had accepted the position of Headmistress after Cid's retirement. Squall had strictly refused to take the job as he still desired to work on missions; his place was on the battlefield and not behind a desk doing paper work, yelling at turbulent students and faking proud smiles at new SeeD candidates.

It had been a few weeks now since Rinoa had taken her leave for Timber and surprisingly all their friends had not been too surprised when the couple had announced their separation. He had been feeling much less pressured ever since.

His gloved hand brushed his forehead as he saluted the Headmistress.

"No, no… there's no need for that Squall, please!" Xu insisted motioning for him to remove his salute. Slowly, the brown haired young man obeyed. Headmistress and Commander stared at each other quietly. This was making Squall awfully awkward.

**_Why does she always become this silent around me?_** Squall shifted the weight on his feet, lying a hand on his hip. "So, what's the new mission?" Squall suddenly asked after several silent minutes.

"Actually, I didn't call you here to tell you about a new mission."

A wave of disappointment washed over Squall's body. His last mission had been almost a month ago and he was beginning to miss the action dearly.

"Oh… what is it you wanted to discuss with me, then?"

Xu opened her mouth to reply, but before she had the chance to do so a loud bang erupted in the office as a group of people stormed through the door, filling the room with loud shouts as they argued loudly.

"Get the_ fuck_ off me!" a voice suddenly boomed louder than all the others as the tallest man in lead of the group tried to push the men off him as they, tried to drag him out of the room, grabbing harshly on every part of his body they could hold on to. "I have every _right_ to be here! You security bastards have kept me from coming inside every God damn time!" the tall prominent blond man threw one of the Security Guards to the floor, making the many other guards hurl themselves at him.

"What the **_hell_ **is going on here?!" Xu barked furiously, causing everyone fall silent instantly as they glanced towards her almost fearfully.

The broad shouldered blond man took advantage of the Guards' stillness to shake their grips off of him violently, causing others to fall to the floor. He spun around slowly, brushing a gloved hand through his short golden locks cockily.

Xu gasped recognizing who was now standing before her, smirking as he walked closer to her desk.

"_Seifer_?" it was Squall who suddenly broke the heavy silence, gasping the name in shock, his eyes widening slightly.

Silence fell in the room when finally… "Security, you can dispose… we have this under control."

The Security men stood up swiftly and rushed out of the office at the Headmistress' words, leaving Xu and Squall to stare at the once arrogant man whom now stood before them.

"Well… it's great to you guys _too_! Please, don't show more enthusiasm, I'm dyin' here!" Seifer exclaimed sarcastically breaking the awkward silence.

Squall's stare was instantly changed into a glare as he crossed his arms over his chest. **_What the hell_****_ are you doing here, Almasy…? _**Squall's stomach churned nauseously as images of their last meeting filled his mind; how he had coldly battled them with psychotic gleam in his eyes, forced Rinoa to merge with the insane Sorceress Adel. He nearly cringed, remembering what the taller man had heartlessly done to him in D-District prison, could still vividly feel the rush of electricity painfully stabbing his every nerve… had Seifer come back to haunt them of his evil doings? Show them what he was capable of once more?

"_What_ are you doing here, **_Seifer_****_ Almasy_**?" Xu snapped harshly, eyes narrowing in distaste as she glared at him.

"Hey! I had enough trouble swallowing my own damn pride before deciding to walk up here, so hear me out before goin' all bitchy on me!" Seifer snapped back rudely.

Xu rammed her palms on the top of her desk forcefully. If looks could kill, the blond haired man would be a pile of dust by now, from the glare the Asian woman was sending at him, but even if she hated the man, she fell silent, waiting for Seifer explanation.

"So you're the new Headmistress, huh?" Seifer let himself fall on the armchair, swinging his feet on top of Xu's desk lazily and folding his arms behind his head. "So this means Leonhart, here, is probably your little _Puppet _Commander_?"_ he smirked glancing at Squall, who he, was giving him one of his nastiest death glares.

"I'm warning you, _Almasy_, get to the _point_ or **else**!!" Xu hissed through clenched teeth.

Seifer's expression surprisingly became solemn as he glanced back to the new Headmistress of Balamb Garden.

"Alright, alright, sorry… just old habits kickin' in, y'know…" The tall blond haired man almost seemed genuinely apologetic… almost… **_What kind of twisted game are you playing with us this time, Seifer? _**Squall thought, watching his former rival's every move closely, feeling every muscle of his body tense at the sight of the Ex-Knight every slight movement.

Seifer swept his feet off Xu's large desk, straightening himself on the armchair as he folded his arms over his chest. "I've been thinking a lot during the last five months… a lot… and…" he took a shaky breath "… I want to come back to Garden…"

Squall's eyes widened slightly at Seifer's revelation, feeling his stomach cringe even more. **_This can't be happening…_**

"And what makes you think I'll actually accept you back in, Almasy, after all you've done? Garden has a good image to keep up with and having_ you_ back is certainly _not_ going to help." Xu sat on the edge of her desk, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow at Seifer.

The former Sorceress' Knight's expression suddenly fell, becoming dark… pained… almost… _remorseful_…?

"Hey, I know what I've done, alright? No need to rub it in!" he yelled angrily, standing up abruptly from his chair.

Squall frowned in confusion at the green eyed man's response. **_Are those feelings simply an act, Seifer? Do you really feel guilt for all the things you have done to this world… to your childhood friends… to me?_**

Xu, seeing Seifer's strange reaction when mentioning his past actions, softened the glare she had been sending at him.

"Just give me one good reason why I should let you come back to Garden, just _one_… and I'll let you join."

Seifer looked in her dark eyes intently. "I want to prove all of you that I'm not what you think I am…"

The Asian woman fell silent, deep in thought.

"…let him in…" Xu and Seifer both whirled around towards Squall, shocked.

"…huh?" Xu seemed very confused.

The tall blond could only stare deeply into his former rival's stormy blue eyes as Squall mirrored his stare.

"Well, we do need another good Gunblade user…" Squall shrugged, unable to find any other answer to explain his previous words. Fighting against Seifer during the Sorceress War had been painful. Squall had always wished they had fought beside each other and not the opposite. Even though the man fought dirty, Squall had always trusted Seifer with his life, in a strange twisted way; they shared a strange passion through their Gunblades. He was probably one of the few who understood Seifer's thirst for battle - for action - simply because his own heart craved for it… and after six months, after all that had happened between them, Squall suddenly felt all his respect for the man engulfing him, soothing away his insecurities towards him. Seifer had strength and ferocious energy that in the end always drove Squall's well concealed emotions to their limits. It was only now, after being separated from him for such a long time that he realized he missed it all… the carnal fights, the raw thrill of power clashing together as they battled; no one could quite give Squall the rush of satisfaction that their violent duels filled his body with.

**_Besides…_****_ Seifer would have made an excellent SeeD, one of the best, if he had only been able to follow orders…_** Squall thought, attempting to convince himself that his own, twisted desire for rivalry was not the only reason he wished Seifer to come back.

"Hmm…" Xu was obviously unconvinced that allowing the tall blond man to come back would be a wise decision.

"We can try it out; you can attend to classes for a few weeks until the next SeeD exams… but I'm warning you; you'll be under serious watch and **_any_** sign of uncooperative attitude from your part and you're **_out_**!" Xu warned, keeping her tone harsh and stern as reminder of her authority.

Seifer grinned, one of his rare _genuine_ smiles as he realised the Headmistress had accepted his request.

"That means wearing the school uniform," Seifer's smile shrunk weakly "being in time for classes, attending to **_all_** periods-"

"Alright, alright, I get the **_point, _**Xu!" Seifer cut in, waving his hand angrily.

The Asian woman grinned sadistically.

"Actually, that's **_Headmistress_** for you, Seifer…"

Squall attempted to hide a snicker by coughing softly seeing the annoyed expression on Seifer's face, but apparently failed as the blond man glared murderously at him.

Xu pulled the lowest drawer of her desk, taking a thin folder and throwing it in front of Seifer.

"Fill in these applications and you can leave. Come back tomorrow and we'll assign you to your new dorm and dorm partner."

"You wouldn't happen to have a pen, now, would you?" was Seifer's reply, his low voice falsely sweet and charming as he sat down on the arm chair once more.

Xu gave an exasperated sigh and threw him a pen.

"Sheesh, quite an aggressive Headmistress you are…" at Seifer's words, Xu seemed to the point of exploding into a fit of hysterical shouts when Squall decided to interfere, even though the sight was indeed amusing.

"Xu?" the furious Asian woman averted her eyes quickly towards him, widening as if she had forgotten of her SeeD Commander's presence.

"Would you tell me what is it you wanted to speak to me about, _now_?" the Headmistress looked confused for a second.

"You called me to your office, Xu…" Squall stated, failing to hide his burgeoning impatience.

Xu blinked in realisation.

"Forgetful, too?" Seifer asked mockingly, raising his head from the applications he had been filling.

"SHUT **_UP_**, ALMASY!!" Xu barked furiously.

Seifer simply smirked, going back to his previous occupation. Squall could not stop himself from smiling weakly… Good old Seifer Almasy; he would never change…

"Anyways, President Loire called this morning asking if it would be possible to talk to you in person," Xu finally explained.

Squall frowned; talking to Laguna Loire had never been one of his favorite activities.

"Why the hell would the President of Esthar want to speak to _you_, Leonhart?" Seifer asked, averting his eyes away from the applications once more, meeting the brown haired man's blue stormy eyes, gazing into them curiously.

The quiet young man shrugged in reply.

"Have monsters been able to break through the city again?" Squall asked looking away from the emerald pools of his former rival's eyes, towards Xu. The dark haired woman shook her head in dismissal.

"No, the SeeDs assigned to the Esthar area would have alerted us. Mr. Loire only requested the authorization to speak to you in person; he'll be expecting you tomorrow in the after noon."

**_'Great… she just _**_had** to accept his stupid request! That's really what I needed; speaking with a silly old goof!' **_Of course, Squall had not spoken his thoughts as he simply frowned, which only caused Seifer to smirk as he noticed the man's annoyance.

But in the end, Squall simply nodded at Xu.

"A group of Garden cadets are leaving on the Ragnarok for Esthar for a field trip tomorrow, so you can simply board as well." Xu instructed.

Squall nodded once more as he started turning around slowly to take his leave, giving one last side glance towards Seifer, their eyes meeting for a brief moment.

As the office's large oak doors closed behind Squall, Seifer stood up from his seat.

"Here are my applications, my **_dear_** Headmistress…"

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TBC…

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_**Author's note:** Good ol' Seifer Almasy!!! Don't you just all love him? I know I do!! I love writing stories with him… he's SOOOO entertaining!! Anyways… please DO tell me what your opinions on my fic so far… should I continue or not? Please tell me what you think!!_


	3. You are SO lucky!

**_Comments:_******

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**_Feary_****_-of-fiction: _**_I'm glad you liked how I portrayed Rinoa… I really didn't want her goin' all bitchy and stuff and even if I'm not very fond of her, I really don't picture her as someone who would do that, specially not if she knew what someone else was saying was right… Anyways, thanks for the wonderful review! I hope you enjoy this new chapter!_

**_Smackskiller_****** _I'm glad you're enjoying my fic so far… don't worry this will be SLASH!!_

**_Tsuki_**_: Here ya go darlin'!! _

_There will be more soon!_

_Enjoy!!_

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**Chapter 3**

**You are **so** lucky!**

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The tall blond man groaned in irritation.

"Fucking UNIFORM!" Seifer scratched his shoulder insanely through the fabric of his new school uniform.

"I forgot how much this shit was **_itchy_**!" the young man glared at his reflection in the mirror. He always felt naked without his infamous grey trench coat, felt vulnerable even. His long coat felt like a second skin to him; an armor which blocked everyone's eyes from looking into his soul, kept everyone from seeing the weaknesses he so thoroughly despised.

"Why the hell did you come back here, Almasy?" the man wondered aloud as he made his way out of the bathroom, only to bump into the small form of his dorm partner rather forcefully. The cadet almost fell to the floor before Seifer reached for his arm, pulling him to his feet softly.

"Hey, watch where you're walkin', kid." Seifer said, his tone sounding uninterested as he glanced down carelessly at the boy.

He looked no older than 15 years of age, his short black straight hair brushing just above his dark sparkling innocent eyes. His skin was pale and felt extremely soft under Seifer's fingers as he held onto the boy's arm. His frail, short and almost feminine body made him seem vulnerable and defenceless beside Seifer's tall and large form.

Being much shorter than him the boy had to bend his head backwards to reach Seifer's eyes, as he glanced shyly up at him. Fear suddenly filled the short cadet's raven eyes as he recognised the man standing before him and seeing such emotions made the blond man very awkward.

The boy squirmed as Seifer brought a hand above his head, but the gesture had not been needed as the taller man began ruffling the younger boy's hair. Low chuckles escaped the tall blonde's lips as he pulled his hand away from the soft black locks.

"I don't bite, you know…"

The cadet blinked as he gazed into Seifer's emerald eyes, seeming slightly less frightened.

"T-That's not exactly what the rumors say…" came the boy's soft reply.

Seifer frowned. "Well don't listen to what the rumors say." The tall man began scratching his stomach, his face grimacing in annoyance.

"So, you got a name?" Seifer asked, still rubbing his abdomen. The boy looked down at Seifer's hand which was rubbed his stomach through the uniform, frowning in confusion.

"Uh… my name is Zack… do you have some kind of problem with your stomach?" the black haired youth asked as he kept watching Seifer's hand which was now nearly scraping off the fabric of the uniform with its nails.

"This… fucking… uniform… is… KILLING ME!!" as he yelled that, Seifer tore his uniform top off him and threw it on the floor, leaving his well defined chest naked and free to admire.

Zack's eyes widened as his eyes fell on Seifer's torso and he whirled around hastily, rushing towards his side of the dorm, mumbling something which sounded like "Forgot something in my room!"

Seifer blinked, then smirked understanding perfectly the reason why the younger boy had fled. The broad shouldered blond shrugged in dismissal and walked to his own room, pulling a tight white tank top out of his dresser and over his head. Having put on the white shirt over his chest, he walked over to the small kitchenette of the dormitory to retrieve his uniform top, which still lay sprawled on the floor after being violently thrown a few moments earlier.

Zack curiously appeared out of his room only after Seifer had put his uniform top on once more.

"It doesn't itch anymore?" Zack finally asked shyly after a few moments, timidly meeting the taller man's emerald eyes.

"Nope… put on another shirt underneath. Come on, let's go to class. We don't want to be late, now do we?"

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The brown haired SeeD Commander calmly made his way towards the newly arranged Balamb Garden Airport, his face evermore relaxed, but in truth he was feeling everything but composed. The departure for Esthar would be in a few minutes but Squall was less than eager to go.

Sighing, the leather clad man took his first step on board the Ragnarok, pushing the second level button of the elevator.

The elevator door swished open before him and a wave of loud voices washed over him as a crowd of hyper teenagers talked to each other excitedly inside the second level of the ship. Squall's eyes roamed around the crowd of students with an expression alike to disgust. Had he ever been this childish? He hoped the younger people would not be talking this way the entire trip or surely he would need to kill some of them. The brunette walked towards the back of the room to distance himself as far away from the crowd of cadets, laying his back against the wall, folding his arms across his chest and closing his eyes as he waited for departure.

"Shouldn't you be sitting on a large comfy seat, your belt safely buckled, _Commander_?" a deep voice asked sarcastically, causing Squall's eyes to open calmly, only to find himself facing a large chest.

He glanced upwards slowly, his gaze falling on two sparkling emerald eyes, which were mocking down at him.

"Seifer…" Squall said in a bored tone, holding the man's now intense gaze.

"Squall…" the tall blond replied, smirking.

"Nice uniform…" Squall countered the taller man's gaze, his eyes roaming down over Seifer's body scornfully.

"I see _you_ still haven't lost the leather… tell me Leonhart, are you sure you've checked your sexuality lately?" Seifer cocked his head to one side, blinking innocently, but the smirk told otherwise.

The brown haired man brought a hand to his forehead, shaking his head in irritation.

"What do you want?" the SeeD Commander almost snapped.

"My, my, aren't _we _grumpy?" Seifer provoked. "I just wanted to chat, Leonhart, no reason to get all pissed."

Letting his hand fall down to his side, Squall glanced up at Seifer's eyes once again, staring suspiciously at him.

"What?!" Seifer finally snapped impatiently as Squall continued being silent, simply staring at him.

"_Chat_?" Squall raised his eyebrow questioningly with his usual monosyllabic expression.

"Yeah, you know… talk, babble, make conversation…"

Squall's blue stormy eyes narrowed threateningly as his stare changed into a glare.

"I know what 'Chat' means, _Seifer_. You just aren't the type who'd start a conversation with someone for any other reason than to bother the hell out of them."

Seifer's smirk widened. "Who _ever_ said that's not what I wanted?"

"Whatever…" Squall sighed as he began walking past the large man, only to be stopped as a firm grasp seized his left forearm and kept him from moving any further.

The grey-blue eyed man shot a murderous glare at his former rival over his shoulder.

"Look-" but before Seifer could continue, a loud bell echoed through the room and the voice of a hyper young woman boomed out of the ceiling speakers.

"_Welcome aboard the Ragnarok, the KEWLEST ship on the planet!"_

Seifer snorted as Squall groaned in despair; he too had recognised the voice of Selphie Tilmitt, the pilot of the ship.

_"Please sit down and buckle your seat belt suuuuuuuuuuuuuper tightly! We don't want people gettin' ejected out the windows, now do we?"_

Selphie began laughing maniacally, causing everyone to glance at each other fearfully.

_"SQUAAAAAAAAAAALLLYY!__ GET YOUR BUTT UP HERE!" _the sugar-hyped pilot shouted excitedly through the speakers, making everyone glance towards the SeeD Commander as they clamped their hands on their ears, the high-pitched tone of the young woman having been too much for their poor eardrums to endure.

Squall shook his head hopelessly as he shrugged off Seifer's hand away from his arm and strode towards the elevator as quickly as his feet allowed him to. He _definitely _did not need that crazy girl calling after him again.

"Squall, that you?" Selphie asked happily as the elevator doors swished open before the cockpit.

"Who else?" Squall answered emotionlessly, moving closer to the sitting pilot.

"I heard you're going to see Sir Laguna?" Selphie asked excitedly as Squall let himself fall in the large armchair beside the bouncy haired girl, sighing yet again.

"Aaaaaw MAN! You're so LUCKY!!" the girl squealed.

"Whatever…"

This promised to be a _very_ long day…

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TBC…

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**_Author's note:_**_ SOOOOOOOOO?? How'd you all like it? Yeah… I know… it wasn't a very long chapter but… oh well... the others will be much longer in the future, I promise!!_

_Anyways… see you soon!!_

_Buh__ bye!!_


	4. The President's secret

**Chapter 4**

**The President's secret**

"GAWD! I looooooove this Palace! It's so high-tech 'n stuff!" Selphie sang happily as she bounced in the Presidential Palace corridors beside the ever silent Squall Leonhart.

"C'mon Squall! Why so gloomy? Sir Laguna's keeeeeeewl!"

The silent brunette looked down at her, eyebrow raised skeptically.

"OOOOOH! There's his office!" Selphie suddenly yelled gleefully as she began running towards the large double doors and kicked them open forcefully as she barged into the office yelling "SIR LAGUNA!"

Several businessmen sitting around a wide conference desk, their hands folded seriously in front of them as they all stared wide-eyed at the short, yellow clothed woman, was the sight that greeted Squall as he entered the President's office calmly.

Selphie seemed to the point of wishing she could will herself into shrinking in a microscopic beetle as she blushed shamefully and looked around the room nervously, when a black shoulder-length haired man, wearing a white button up shirt stood up quickly from his seat.

"Squall! Selphie!" the President of Esthar exclaimed happily as he made his way towards the pair, his arms opened wide.

Laguna hugged Selphie warmly and turned towards Squall to do the same but decided against it as he noticed the icy stare the blue stormy eyes were shooting at him. He shook Squall's unreceptive hand excitedly instead.

"Well, as you can see, we were in the middle of a reunion, but you can just stay here and wait 'til we finish." Laguna grinned goofily at them before walking back to his seat and the businessmen resumed their previous conversations.

Squall pinched the bridge of his nose in irritation. This was going to be a long day indeed…

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"Well, now that _that's _finished…" Laguna sighed as he closed the large doors of his office behind the last deputy which had exited the room.

"I always hate these business type reunion things…" Laguna whined almost childishly, which only caused Squall to scowl at him.

"You're the _President_…" the browned haired young man stated slightly irritated at Laguna's immature manners.

The older man brushed a dark whitening lock away from his face nervously, the raven tresses fluttering back before his vivid green eyes instantly.

"I know, but paper work is just not my thing…" he explained giving a nervous laugh as he glanced almost shyly at Squall's stormy eyes.

Squall had to force down the irritated groan that threatened to escape his lips. He then decided to get this worthless meeting over with once and for all; he did not wish to waste any more time staying around the silly President.

"You wanted to see me, Mr. President?" Squall asked politely yet unable to hide his irritation completely.

Laguna seemed to squirm at the SeeD Commander's words, smiling awkwardly.

"Geez, no need to be so formal…" he said scratching his head.

"Would you please -" Squall inhaled deeply to calm himself. "- just get to the point…"

Laguna seemed to grow even more nervous as he squirmed once again, eyeing Selphie strangely.

"Sir Laguna, are you alright?" the bouncy haired young woman asked, bowing her head to one side innocently.

"Selphie… uh… would you mind… uh… leaving the two of us?" Laguna stuttered.

Selphie's green cheerful eyes widened in confusion before she smiled sweetly and nodded. Whirling around, she strutted out of the room happily, closing the doors behind her.

Squall could feel the horror rushing through his body. His worst nightmare was now becoming true; he was left alone, defenceless and vulnerable against… the blabbermouth…

"So, Squall!" Laguna started, forcing himself to sound cheerful, but soon thought otherwise as Squall glared at him menacingly.

"Uh… yeah… maybe you should sit down?"

"I'd rather stand," Squall replied instantly.

"Look, this is not going to be easy for me, so please…?" Laguna muttered, walking towards the humongous windows at the other side of the room. The President of Esthar fell silent for several minutes, gazing down through the glass at the vast city below.

"I wish I wouldn't have to tell you all I'm going to say… but a part of me wants it more than anything. I know you don't have a very high opinion of me; you think I'm some kind of crazy old goof…"

'**_Well you got that close enough…_**_'_ Squall thought bitterly.

"I wish I could prove you wrong too; wish there was a way I could make you like me, but the truth is, I can't act like someone I'm not, Squall…" he was still gazing down at his city as the solemn words left his lips. For the first time since Squall had met him, he saw Laguna being genuinely serious.

The stormy eyed young man frowned in confusion, taking one step closer to the shoulder length haired man, before stopping abruptly. Straightening himself, Squall slid his emotionless mask back on his face.

"Mr. Loire, there is no reason to want such a thing. My feelings towards you are irrelevant. As SeeD Commander and one of your clients; I will follow any orders-"

"That's the problem Squall! I'm not just 'your employer'! I'm not just 'the President of Esthar'!" Laguna had whirled around quickly and strode over to Squall until only a feet separated them as he said those words almost hysterically.

Squall raised a questioning eyebrow at the older man as he finished his outburst. Laguna sighed, looking down at his feet, his shoulders slumping miserably.

"Before I left Windhill to search for a new job in the Esthar region, there is something in the past which Ellone didn't show you…" Laguna began babbling as he kept staring down at his feet and playing nervously with his fingers.

"What does this have to do with me, sir?" Squall asked, his impatience now very apparent in his normally emotionless voice.

"Everything!" Laguna exclaimed loudly, raising his head abruptly. Squall's eyes widened; he was now more than confused.

"I asked Raine to marry me before leaving… and then we… you know… slept together…" Squall cringed at the thoughts which only caused Laguna to blush deeply. "But what I didn't know is that Raine was pregnant when Kiros and I left…"

"Where is this going?" Squall asked as he began feeling very nervous. Laguna was now looking into his eyes, his emerald eyes filled with strange, restrained emotions. Squall wanted nothing less than to experience them, or even see any of them. This was not his problem, whatever nonsense Laguna was babbling about.

"She gave birth to the baby 9 months later; it was in perfect health, beautiful really, or so I've been told… and even then she never told me about the child because she probably knew what I had gotten myself into with the prison incident and the resistance group against Adel." Laguna looked down once again as his eyes seemed to fill with an extremely painful guilt. "When I came back to Windhill a few years later, it had already been too late… Raine had been murdered by Estharian Soldiers since she'd refused to tell them where she had sent Ellone…"

Squall blinked in confusion.

"She'd sent the baby… m-my son… with Ellone… at Edea's orphanage…"

Squall's insides jolted nauseatingly. Sis… for as long as he could remember she had been by his side… the brown haired young man fell backwards slightly as his knees suddenly grew weak under his weight. He gripped the closest chair tightly to support himself before he could fall.

"…Your… son…?" Squall mumbled, his breathing ragged.

"I was never able to see him after that… A few years passed and then I finally went to the orphanage to find Ellone, still unaware of the fact that I even _was_ a father, but Ellone had already been taken by Esthar Scientists… and so I went to search for her and after she was free, the plans for Adel's demise swept me away from everything else…" Laguna's green eyes were gazing intently into Squall's stormy ones as he explained this, as if trying to communicate something he could not find the courage to pronounce aloud.

Squall could only grip the chair tighter, too afraid to even breath… to even think…

"And then I became President… after almost ten years, I found out the truth… of my being a father… but I couldn't face my one and only son… do you remember Kiros telling you that… you looked very much like your mother, Squall?"

The silent young man froze entirely, his eyes widening impossibly.

"Yes… you have the same eyes… you have Raine's eyes…" Laguna smiled hopefully, but his emerald eyes showed only pain, sorrow and guilt.

Squall took one long trembling breath. The world around his was whirling insanely and he soon found his legs faltering once more.

Laguna grabbed the brown haired man's arms forcefully as he saw his body bucking to one side. He pulled the closest chair out with his foot and sat Squall down on it carefully, holding his arms tightly still, as the ghastly expression on the youth's face was not reassuring.

Kneeling down before the baffled young man, Laguna could only stare up as him in concern.

"Squall…?" he whispered as he brought a hand to Squall's cheek, brushing away the wild strands of hair softly. The brown haired man squirmed before blinking as if waking up from an awful dream. The stormy blue eyes gazed down almost fearfully at the emerald ones which stared up at him. He opened his trembling mouth slightly but closed it instantly.

"…Y-You're…" he stuttered, his voice no higher than a whisper. "… you're… my… _father_…?" his voice had resembled one of a lost child as the last word escaped his lips.

Laguna smiled weakly and opened his mouth to say something, but before he could add anything else, the doors of his office flew open loudly.

Both occupants of the room whirled their heads towards the door, unmoving form their positions as they had both been too startled to react in any other way than looking towards the reason of their surprise.

A tall broad shouldered, short blond haired man wearing a tight white tank top and blue shaggy pants, his uniform jacket held lazily in his hand to his side, stood motionless in the door frame. His emerald eyes were wide in amazement.

For several minutes all three men stayed motionless, staring back and forth at each other in silence before Laguna finally pulled his hand away from Squall's cheek swiftly and stood up, forcing a goofy grin on his lips.

"Seifer Almasy! Long time no see, eh?" the dark shoulder length haired man exclaimed, scratching his head.

The golden haired man smirked as he shot his former rival a mocking glance before averting his green eyes to the President of Esthar.

"I came to discuss something with you, President, but I never thought I'd come across something so… _interesting_…" Seifer mocked, glancing down at Squall briefly.

Laguna's eyes widened in horror as he realized what the former Sorceress's Knight was implying.

"Nooooononononononono!" Laguna shrieked, waving his hands frantically in front of him in dismissal. "This is absolutely _not_ what you think!"

Seifer cocked an eyebrow. "Sure it's not… now I'll leave you to it anyways. I'll come back later when you guys are…_ done_…" the tall blond smirked devilishly before whirling around, swinging his jacket over his shoulder and walking outside the Presidential office.

Laguna turned back towards Squall, frowning apologetically, but the brown haired young man did not stay put long enough to see the silent demand for forgiveness as he stood up abruptly, knocking the chair he had been sitting on violently to the floor. He paid no attention to it as he hastily strode over to the large doors, exiting the room.

Closing the doors behind him, he pushed his back against them, closing his eyes and sighing miserably.

Having failed to notice the presence of another person next to him in his upset state, a low chuckle startled him as it rumbled a few inches to his left.

His eyelashes shot open quickly, as he turned to his left only to find himself facing none other than Seifer Almasy, who was smirking down at him.

"Never thought Squall Leonhart would end up being the President of Esthar's personal bitch…" the blond haired man mocked, shaking his head disdainfully.

An intense surge of fury violently took possession of the silent young man's body as he threw himself at the arrogant taller man, pushing up forcefully against the closest wall, his fingers digging painfully hard in Seifer's shoulders.

"Shut up…" Squall hissed threateningly.

"Touched a nerve didn't I?"

Squall pulled Seifer's body away from the wall slightly only to ram it back violently against it, making the much taller man gasp in pain softly.

The two men stayed silent for several minute as Squall stared up into Seifer's emerald pools furiously, keeping him trapped against the wall firmly.

The smirk on Seifer's lips had now faded as he held Squall's stormy glare, searching inside the blue depths for the enraged emotions the shorter man had now expertly hidden behind his emotionless mask as he slightly regained his composure. But Seifer could still grasp the emotions in those fiery eyes, as Squall's fury betrayed him.

Before the arrogant man would add another snide remark, Squall shoved him into the wall with much less force this time, releasing his grip on the taller man's shoulders and walking away, his steps heavy and quick as the anger still boiled through his veins.

"Hey! Where the hell do you think you're going!" Seifer barked, evidently annoyed at being thrust against a wall and suddenly ignored.

"Away…"

Seifer caught up with the angered brown haired man, grabbing his upper arm. Squall tried to pull it away forcefully, which only resulted in making Seifer tighten his grip painfully. Squall was abruptly reminded how much stronger the taller man actually was.

"The least you could do is tell me what it meant - what I saw in there - don't you think?"

Squall glared murderously at him.

"It's none of your busi-"

"It sure as hell is, if it got me bruised from getting fuckin' rammed against a wall!" Seifer shouted before Squall could finish his usual dismissive reply.

The shorter man attempted to pull his arm away one again, which only made Seifer tighten his grip yet again.

"If you don't want to get your ass thrown out of Garden, Almasy, you'll let go of my arm… _now_…" Squall threatened, hissing every word through clenched teeth.

Seifer scowled, blinked then released Squall's arm.

"You happy now, _Commander_?" Seifer said in a falsely sweet tone, bowing down before Squall, his arms outstretched politely.

The SeeD commander never gave his reply as he whirled around and strode away.

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It was with a very thoughtful and unhappy expression that Squall arrived back to Balamb Garden. He did not waste a single second make his way towards his private room.

"Oy! Squally!" a voice suddenly shouted behind him.

The brown haired man suddenly felt a very strong urge to scream in desperation, but only sighed deeply to calm himself and turned around slowly. The sight of a very cheerful looking young woman wearing a yellow summer dress rushing towards him was what he was greeted with.

He desperately wished he had the ability to will himself away into his private rooms. The hyper-active ball of energy of a girl was not exactly what he needed to lighten his foul mood.

"Selphie…" he said in a bored tone.

"Hey Squall! Sooooo… what did Sir Laguna want to talk to you about?" she asked cheerfully, winking at him.

The SeeD Commander winced at the question and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Selphie, this is _definitely_ not a good time…" he warned.

The bouncy haired girl blinked in confusion then smiled. "Okay! I just need to deliver a message, though… even if I can't begin to understand what madness came over that guy!" as she finished, she frowned, bringing a finger to her chin in thought.

'**_That guy?_**' This drew Squall's attention.

"Anyways… _Seifer_out of all people came to see me before leaving the Ragnarok, when we arrived back in Balamb- did you even know he was back at Garden?"

"Yes, I did… I was in Xu's office when he burst in with entire Security Committee on his back to ask permission to come back to Garden…"

Selphie blinked, sniggered, obviously trying to stop herself from laughing madly. "Oh! Well, I had no idea, so imagine _my_ surprise when I saw him walking in the cockpit! I almost had a heart attack when I heard his voice behind me!" She whined. Squall almost smiled as he imagined the bouncy girl screaming like a banshee before dropping dead in the cockpit of her dear Ragnarok.

"Anyways… he was really nice with me; asking me how it was going and all that. We talked for a few minutes - it was really weird! And then he said he had to go, but before, he asked me to give you a message…"

"A message?" Squall wondered aloud, slightly confused.

"Yeah! He simply told me to say he was sorry!" she exclaimed with a dumbfounded expression.

It was Squall's turn to blink, bewildered. It had never been Seifer Almasy's policy to apologize for _anything_ since the man was simply too stubborn to ever admit he had done something wrong in the first place.

Hell was surely freezing over…

"Well, I'd better go! Xu'll be wanting to see me!" Selphie waved at him as she strutted away cheerfully towards the elevator, leaving a still confused Squall free to leave for his quarters.

Peace would apparently not come to him easily as he now had too many unpleasant thoughts to dwell upon.

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TBC…

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	5. You wear too many fuckin' belts, you kno...

**_Comments :_****__**

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**_Hullooooo_********_ It's been a while, eh?_**

**_So how's everyone going?_**

**_I wanna thank everyone who's reviewed even though there are very few of you… you still matter alot to me!_**

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**_Please enjoy this new chapter!_**

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**Chapter 5**

**You wear too many fucking _belts_****, you know that?**

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He spent nearly ten hours lying on his bed, unanswered questions swarming his mind like ungrateful parasites trying to drain him of his sanity. It was only when an unbearable migraine crawled its way into his head that he decided he had had enough.

Night had long since fallen, but the place he wished to go was always available every hour of the day; the Training center.

Pulling out his Revolver Gunblade, he admired the shimmering silvery metal as it glimmered under the lone stream of moonlight which fell through the window of his bed room.

He always liked it best this way, in his quarters, when they were dark and silent, bathed in the hoary light of the moon. It made him feel comfortable, safe from people's scrutiny; no one could see through his barriers in the darkness.

Slashing his weapon through the shadows, he flung it over his shoulder, laying the sword against it as he walked out of his quarters, the hydraulic doors swishing open before him and sliding closed behind as he passed the door frame.

His steps echoed loudly though the halls as he made his way through Garden, towards the Training Center.

A strong tropical scent filled his nostrils as the large steel doors slid open mechanically, the heavy metal roaring loudly. He loved the exotic odors and sounds found in this area; when you ventured deep into the center, you felt lost… alone… like you could only rely on yourself. He loved the feeling, the way it made his blood boil as the adrenaline rushed through out every single vein of his body.

Walking deeper into the replicated tropical forest, Squall took a defensive stance, holding his Gunblade firmly before him as he sharpened his every sense, slowing his breathing as he listened carefully around him, scanning his surroundings intensively with his sharp, stormy eyes.

He whirled around quickly, hearing a loud crack erupt from behind him, but found nothing. His eyes shot to his left as another crack was heard in that direction.

Something was moving through the trees and was obviously trying to confuse him as many cracks began moving from random directions all around him, but Squall was not so easily fooled… closing his eyes he concentrated on the sounds carefully… there was one out of the many others that seemed louder… heavier… it was getting closer… and closer…

Squall tightened his grip on the Revolver. A loud crack erupted right behind him and the brown haired man instantly whirled around, swinging his sword forcefully with his movement.

"Holy Shit, Leonhart!" a deep throaty voice exclaimed after a few seconds, making Squall's eyes shoot open quickly.

Seifer Almasy now stood before him at the edge of his sharp Gunblade. His body slightly bent backwards as the jagged tip of Squall's blade brushed the tall blond's neck dangerously close.

"I don't think our Headmistress would appreciate it if her lil Commander decapitated one of her students, now would she?" Seifer stated mockingly, smirking, yet not moving from his position.

Squall's eyes flared menacingly. In one jagged movement, he pushed his weapon against Seifer's neck, making a thin stream of blood dribble down his softly tanned skin.

"Are you so sure about that, Almasy?" Squall asked, quirking his eyebrow defiantly.

Seifer raised his hand and pushed the Revolver away from him, glaring furiously at his former rival.

Squall sheathed his Gunblade, eyeing Seifer suspiciously, before deciding to remove the belt which held his weapon, letting it fall on the ground with a soft, _thump_.

"Didn't you have enough of scarring my face?" Seifer grumbled, caressing his mildly injured neck before brushing away the small amount of blood from it with the back of his leather gloved hand.

"_You_ scarred mine _first_… and maybe that'll just remind you not to sneak up on me."

Seifer simply smirked proudly at the words.

"So…" the tall blond man began, swinging his Hyperion over his shoulder, cocking his head to the side, cockily. "What's our precious SeeD commander doing up at at such a _foul_ hour?"

Squall rolled his eyes, sighing impatiently. "Look, Seifer, I don't have time for one of your stupid games. I had to endure them all my life and I'm not going to go through it again." His glare made his intentions ever more clear, as he glowered viciously up at the much taller and larger man.

Something strange then happened. The once proud, arrogant man's broad shoulders slumped miserably as he let the arm which held the Hyperion against his shoulder fall to his side ungracefully. The blond then let his head fall, almost shamefully, sighing dejectedly.

Squall's eyes widened in shock and he almost began to feel bad for the despondent sight Seifer was.

"Heh… I'm not doing a very god job, am I?" he mumbled, staring down at his feet.

Squall frowned in confusion. "What are you going on about?"

Seifer looked up slowly and Squall had to force a gasp down his throat to keep it from escaping his lips as he saw the defeated expression on the blond's face… the guilt in the emerald eyes…

"I said I wanted to prove everyone I wasn't what people thought of me, and so far, I've been proving the complete opposite… to you, anyways…" a hopeful look passed through the man's aquamarine eyes, before being filled with awful remorse.

Squall desperately wanted to wipe away such a defeated look on the older man's face. Seifer Almasy was arrogant, cocky and loud… not pitiful! This concerned Squall more than he would have ever allowed himself to admit, which only caused to unnerve him ever more… why should _he_ even _care_?

"What are you playing at, Seifer?" was the only thing Squall could say.

Seifer smiled weakly, yet it was genuine, which only resulted into confusing Squall further… if _that_ could have even been possible at this point…

"I'm not playing at anything, Squall…" he answered calmly, staring more intently into the shorter man's eyes as if to pour his every emotion into one gaze.

"You think I'm proud of what I've done? You think I'm happy of living with the memories of my _fucking_ actions?" he hissed through clenched teeth, never dropping the intense stare he shared with the stormy eyed man. "All my life I've lived with this intense dream to prove myself to everybody! Prove that I was _somebody_, yet, it resulted into being hated by everyone around me in the end… I followed the Sorceress – she was able to control me - because of this fuckin' dream o' mine…" regret filled his every syllable as he recounted the horrifying events of his resent past.

The two men fell silent as Squall simply gazed into the taller man's eyes, searching curiously through the emerald pools - trying to comprehend all this display of strange emotions. They stayed the same way for several moments before Seifer suddenly took a hesitant step forward, letting his precious Hyperion fall to the ground and reached his hands out to grab Squall's shoulders firmly.

The brown haired SeeD flinched at the touch, uneasiness rushing through out his body at the physical proximity but he held the taller man's intense green gaze none the less, forcing no emotion to trace his face and eyes.

"Do you know how it felt to kill those people and thinking that I enjoyed it? That I took pleasure into seeing the blood flow from their bodies, of feeling their bones cracking under my fingers?" the blond haired man whispered, his tone dangerously serious. "'Cause that's what she did to me, Squall… she made me enjoy things – terrible things - that I never _would_ have enjoyed doing…" Seifer's grip on Squall's shoulders tightened as he frowned deeply… tears seemed to be forming in his usually arrogant aqua-marine eyes.

"'Cause I **_didn't_** enjoy those things! I **_didn't_**!" he shouted hysterically, his face grimacing in pain, a sob gurgling inside his throat as he began shaking Squall's shoulders, desperately trying to convince the younger man of the honesty of his words… trying to convince _himself…_

"Seifer!" the chestnut haired man yelled, alarmed. His body began trembling weakly in fear. He didn't know what to do… he felt lost in his own mind… confused…

Tears had now begun falling down Seifer's high cheeks, which only frightened Squall further. People were not supposed to confide in him! People weren't supposed to rely on him!

Panicked, he grabbed Seifer's forearms, his blue stormy eyes gazing around frantically.

"Seifer, stop this… snap out of it!" his voice sounded more like a low shriek as his panic finally betrayed his cool.

"Sorry…" Seifer mumbled, looking down at his feet once more, but never letting go of Squall's shoulders, as if the tall man depended on his hold not to fall.

"Why have you told me all of this? Why me?" Squall whispered, appalled. "I can't… I can't do this…" his grip tightened around Seifer's strong arms, attempting to calm his panic, as if he too needed Seifer to support his own weight, support his sanity from drowning into his extreme state of anguish.

"Because… because I can't take this fuckin' guilt anymore! It's tearing me apart! Everyone thinks I'm proud of my doings and to see the hate and fear in their eyes kills me even more!" the tall man stuttered between light sobs.

"You've come to see the wrong person, Seifer… don't rely on me… if you want comfort don't expect to receive any from me…" Squall warned, his panic more and more evident.

Seifer's head shot up, his watery green eyes gazing deeply into Squall's stormy ones.

"That's not what want…" he inched his face closer to Squall's, causing the brunette to tighten his grip on the blond man's arms painfully, warning Seifer not to come any closer.

"You're the only on who doesn't look at me with fear tracing your eyes. You're the only one who doesn't look at me with genuine hatred no matter how much I taunt you," he whispered, his tear-filled eyes at Squall in near admiration.

"You don't judge… you don't pity… you were the only one I could have said this to, don't you see…? I've told you what I've done and not once did you flinch from my story…"

As he listened to the older man's words, Squall felt himself relax for a strange reason as they both stood still, huddled close together in those strange positions. Seifer then, slipped his hands away from Squall's shoulders. Slowly, he lowered his head to Squall's shoulder, laying his forehead in the crook of his neck, as he attempted to slow down his ragged breath choked with sobs to a normal pace.

The brown haired man felt no malice in the taller man's actions and so he stayed motionless as the blond's breath brushed the skin of his neckline softly and his own hands remained gently closed around Seifer's upper arms. He had never yet experienced such a strange situation. He felt utterly bewildered as to why someone took comfort from physical contact of his _body_, reassured by his warmth, yet he did not feel the need to push the taller man away.

And so he stood perfectly still, his fingers wrapped safely around Seifer's arms even as they slowly encircled his waist.

His eyes suddenly widened in realization; Seifer Almasy, arrogant bastard of Balamb Garden, his former rival and the one who had taunted him his entire life, was _hugging_ him, nuzzling his face in the crook of his neck. Squall began feeling extremely awkward once more, no matter how warm and comfortable the body pressed against him felt. His hands tightened around the sinewy arms in alarm.

"Seifer…" Squall said, his voice cracking weakly.

"This is fuckin' weird…" Seifer suddenly said bluntly, his deep voice sending strange shivers down Squall's spine as he spoke in his ear and his chest vibrated against Squall's body.

"You're the one holding me…" Squall stated matter-of-factly, forcing a calm emotionless tone into his voice.

"I don't see you pushing me away…" the mock and arrogance had suddenly crawled its way back into Seifer's voice and Squall could almost feel the smirk against the sensitive skin of his neck. Just as Squall was about to push the man away from him violently, he felt Seifer's arms leave his waist and his body straightening up. Seifer moved away in front of him, avoiding his eyes as he took another step backwards before turning around, picking up his Gunblade from the ground and propping himself down in the grass. He put Hyperion at arms length to his left, laying his arms against his raised knees.

A heavy silence fell over both past rivals as Squall stood motionless, standing a few feet away from the former Sorceress's knight as he stared down at him, still lost in his own confusion.

"This is **_fucking_** weird…" Seifer repeated, shaking his head in disbelief as he chuckled bitterly. He then raised his lowered head from between his knees, glancing at Squall over his shoulders.

"I never actually _thought_ I'd ever say this to anyone…" Seifer chuckled louder. "So now you'll be able to use this against me, huh, Leonhart?" the question had been more of a statement as Seifer obviously did not expect an answer, turning his head away and letting it fall between his knees once more.

It shot up slightly as Seifer heard footsteps coming slowly towards him. The next thing he knew, a very preoccupied looking Squall Leonhart had propped himself on the ground next to him, laying his head backwards as he stared up at the sky, his arms laying in the grass behind his back as he supported his upper body.

"Is _Squall Leonhart_ actually… **_relaxing_**?" Seifer raised a mocking eyebrow at him, but Squall paid no attention to it as he continued staring at the stars through the transparent force field, which served as ceiling for the training center.

"Laguna's my father…" the words left his lips so strangely that he wondered if the voice vibrating in his throat had even belonged to him. He looked away from the starry night sky, just in time to see Seifer's green eyes widening in shock.

Squall did not even understand it himself, why he'd revealed the truth to Seifer, but perhaps it was his own way to assure the blond that he did not have to feel ashamed, to share things that bothered him deeply, just as Seifer had done… to show him of moment of weakness, just as his former rival had done…

Why he even _cared_ if Seifer felt embarrassed, was still a complete mystery to him and so he decided not to think about anything anymore, for once, and just let whatever had to happen, happen.

"Is that why he was…?" the childish curiosity in Seifer's voice made Squall want to burst in laughter, but of course, his reflexive emotional restrain made it impossible … so he did as usual and kept his face blank.

"That's why he wanted to see me today; he wanted to tell me the truth… and I just… freaked… that's why you found us the way you did in his office…" the words kept rolling on his tongue as if they had a will of their own. Never had he felt so free, so comfortable at uttering words before in his life. His body felt numb, his mind so… light… He wanted to stop the words, but they would not… and perhaps he even felt relieved that for once, his barriers for once, held no power over his mind and body…

Seifer simply stared at him, as if silently voicing Squall to continue talking… assuring him that he was listening… that he cared…?

"I have a fucking _blabbermouth_ as a father…" Squall sighed miserably, raising his knees and laying his arms on them. Seifer sniggered lightly.

"I've always thought I had no parents… that was my life; being an orphan… and then suddenly… I'm no longer alone… I have family…" Squall shook his head irritably. "…this is pathetic… should this really be affecting me this way?"

Seifer shrugged. "Beats me… I've had the same life has yours, 'cept I'll never have parents…" he looked towards the sky, a pensive look blurring those bright emerald eyes.

"That's what I always told myself… and look at me now; I ended up being the son of the most hopeless guy in the God damn _world_…" Squall smiled bitterly to himself as he watched Seifer lowering his head between his knees miserably.

"My parents are dead…" Seifer smiled sullenly, looking up at Squall as he brought his hand towards his neck, holding his chocker between his fingers.

"This is all I got left of them. Matron gave it to me before leaving the Orphanage; said my Dad had entrusted it to her when my parents left me, only to die weeks later in the War."

Both men stared absorbedly into each other's eyes for several moments; there was no pity in their stare, only unspoken understanding…

And then Squall was smiling at his former rival and the latter found himself unable to do the same, too dazzled by the alluring sight. For the first time in his life, he had seen such an expression on the quiet brunette's face… he felt as if a weight itself had lifted from his tattered soul, like the friendly gesture was the key to unlocking the door which held the guilt in his heart. Squall was forgiving him, was allowing Seifer to forgive himself…

"This has been the weirdest night of my whole fuckin' life…" Seifer muttered, shaking his head in disbelief.

Squall then stood up slowly, holding up the belt which hoisted his Gunblade and buckling it safely around his waist.

"You wear too many fuckin' belts, you know that?" Seifer mocked, smirking up at him. Squall looked down at him over his shoulder.

"Whatever…" he looked in front of him and began walking away, disappearing behind the cover of the exotic trees as he made his way back to the Training Center entrance.

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TBC…

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**_Author's note:_**_ Yeah… I know, a very emotional chapter that one was… but don't worry, Seifer and Squall won't become all buddy buddy after this… ooooh no… quite the contrary! They might have shared 'moments of weakness' together that night… but everything will stay the same, because I suppose that's how both characters would have wanted it to be._

_I'll try to right more as soon as possible!_

_Thanks for reading! Please review!_


	6. Don't you fuckin' die on me

**_Comments:_**

_Thanks sooooo much everyone, for reviewing! I'm glad you all liked the emotional bit…_

_Like I promised, Squall and Seifer's relationship won't change drastically because of what happened, because that's just the way I think they would both act…_

_Hope you like this new chap!_

_Enjoy!! _

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**Chapter 6**

**Don't you fuckin' die on me**

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"The Grendel is a very ferocious dragon and is considered one of the most dangerous ones known to this day, even though it is relatively small compared to other types of Dragons, so do not let yourselves _ever_ be fooled by its size." The instructor clicked the controller in her hand and a holographic projection of the aforementioned monster appeared in front of the rows of desks where the students sat. A few gasped through out the room, mostly the girls.

As Seifer closed his eyes, he laid his chin in his left palm lazily, sighing in exasperation.

Two weeks had passed since Seifer had arrived at Garden… since Squall and him had experienced that very strange conversation… and the tall blond already felt like abandoning his wish to become a SeeD. He already knew everything there was to learn in his classes and every day felt like an eternity… a very boring, useless, eternity…

"Hey…" someone whispered beside him, nudging his stomach softly.

"What?" Seifer whispered back, opening only one of his lids slightly to gaze at his left curiously, his eyes falling on Zack who always sat beside him in class. His dorm mate and he had become friends in these last weeks. Seifer found the younger boy entertaining… plus he was really cute too… so that helped…

"Don't fall asleep; she's going to kill you and you can't afford _that_, can you?" Zack informed, glaring severely at the older young man. Seifer rolled his green eyes.

"Your concern touches me, darlin'…" he winked suggestively, lying back in his chair lazily as he folded his arms behind his head. Zack blushed deeply before looking away quickly, which caused Seifer to grin devilishly.

"Seifer, would you please explain us how to effectively defeat a Grendel?" the instructor asked, apparently satisfied with herself of thinking she had found the 'perfect' opportunity to embarrass the former Sorceress's Knight.

Oh, she thought Seifer was clueless, did she? The tall blond smiled almost charmingly at her.

"Grendels are known for their tremendous stealth and speed. You should remember to always cast slow and meltdown on it at the beginning of a battle. Another effective way is to cut its tail off since it's the source of the Grendel's energy and is uses it in its various, if not most deadly, attacks. The Grendel will also lose its balance once it has no more tail."

Everyone was staring at him with their eyes wide, impressed, as Seifer finished speaking. He smirked proudly.

As he looked to his left in the corner of his eyes and saw Zack looking up at him in admiration, Seifer couldn't help but wink at him once more, making the dark haired youth flush once again. He then looked back at the instructor, holding himself back not to burst into a loud fit of laughter at the angry expression she was sending at him. She obviously wasn't pleased that Seifer actually knew what he was talking about.

The sight was hilarious, of course, yet Siefer couldn't help but feel upset. This was another reason why he wasn't so sure coming back to Garden had been a good decision after all… why he felt like giving up every day. Why couldn't his instructors be pleased with his good answers and improved attitude instead of reveling in his errors just because he was Seifer Almasy?

**_Just stop thinkin' about it, Almasy, you knew this would happen if you came back… now live with the consequences…_**

****

So once again, for the millionth time, Seifer resisted the urge to flip that bit – instructor off.

Life wasn't fair and he just had to live with it… at least until he finally became a SeeD… and that he would… oh yes…

-----------

"Squall?" the brown haired man looked up from the scattered files on his desk, his stormy eyes widening in shock at the sight of the Asian woman wearing a blue, short, summer dress standing in the door frame of his office. She smiled brightly at the surprised look on his face.

"Gee, nice to see you too!" she pulled her tongue at him, walking inside and sitting down at the arm chair in front of his desk.

"Sorry…" he said, dropping the file in his hands, with the rest of the other files on the desk. "So, what brings you back here, Rinoa?" he asked, smiling weakly. He never would get used to the whole smiling thing, but it was better to do it half-heartedly than nothing at all, especially when you were with General Caraway's daughter or else fear her undesired (not to mention very annoying) reproaches.

"Oh… I was just passing by, to see how everyone was going and all…" she grinned at the frown on her friend's face. "Yes, Squall… it's a normal thing to do; visiting your old friends, y'know?" she teased.

"Right… well… good… I guess…" he brushed the light brown locks away from his face, only to have it flutter right back in its initial place. "So what are you doing _here_?" he insisted.

"You're one of my friends too? We broke up… so what, Squall, we're still friends… and I'm not going to try anything on you, I promise!" she winked. The SeeD commander released the breath he hadn't even noticed holding back… seeing Rinoa again had caused several unpleasant feelings to rush inside his body, which slightly unnerved him. Seeing _Seifer_ again had made him feel happier than seeing his ex-girlfriend - which he had stayed under good terms with after their break-up - was making him feel presently. **_You're_****_ fucked, Leonhart… thought you knew that by now?_**

"I heard Seifer's back at Garden?" she said hesitatingly. Why was she hesitating? Why was she looking worriedly at him this way?

He glared suspiciously at her. "… so what?" he snapped. Rinoa blinked at him.

"Well, I don't know… I just thought that maybe it could have upset you to see him again after everything that's happened…" she mumbled, her eyes fogging with emotion as unpleasant memories invaded her carefree conscience. She blinked them away quickly, smiling ever more happily. How Squall wished he was able to do such a thing as push away his thoughts so easily.

"I'm the one who convinced Xu to let him back in…" Rinoa, blinked, surprised at the young Commander's words.

"How long ago was this?" she asked softly.

**_Why is she being so careful about the subject? I'm not weak! I don't care what happened with the entire Ultimecia affair… Seifer was being controlled! _**

****

Squall frowned in thought. **_Well maybe I was a bit more upset when I first saw him… but… not anymore… not after what he told me…_**

****

"Seifer is not dangerous anymore, Rinoa… he was being controlled the whole time… we figured this a long time ago, remember?" he glared more firmly at her this time. Something flashed through Rinoa's eyes… some sort of recognition… although to what, Squall couldn't begin to imagine what it could have been. She then smiled somewhat mischievously at him.

"You really think so?" she raised an eye brow at him, which only caused Squall to frown deeper. Why did this woman have to be so _confusing_?****Why did everyone seem to notice things Squall never could seem to fully grasp? Why did he always end up feeling lost and stupid when he was well aware that he was far from it?

Squall brought a gloved had to his face, pinching the bridge of his nose before brushing his fingers through his long tresses of hair, combing them backwards only to have them sliding neatly back into place.

"Yes, I'm sure… and I'm sure everyone else thinks so too… the Seifer we all knew before the War was a bastard, but he wasn't a murderer. He loved the action of a fight… but that's all," Squall explained, causing Rinoa to raise her eyebrow at him again.

"You seem to understand him pretty well…" she said thoughtfully.

"… whatever…" Squall said in a bored tone, shaking his head as he took the file he had been studying before Rinoa's arrival.

"I can _see_ things, Squall…"

"You're a Sorceress, not a freaking voodoo witch…" Squall snapped, not even looking up from his work. He had been a fool to think declining the position of Headmaster would have saved him from paper work, being Commander seemed to require even _more_ of the damn thing…

"What're you doing?" Rinoa asked after several silent moments as she sat down on an empty corner of the desk, gazing down curiously at the scattered stack of papers all over Squall's desk.

"Should I even have to answer that question?" the unruly haired man said, writing down something.

"Well, of course you're doing paper work, but what's it about?" the young woman asked.

Squall's head snapped up, glaring at the girl impatiently. **_What's wrong with you, _**_woman**, can't you see I'm trying to fuckin' work?! **_

****

"I swear, I'll stop bothering you and leave after this one!" Rinoa blinked her eye lashes sweetly, causing Squall to roll his eyes, sighing.

"Just re-assigning new SeeDs to the Esthar region, re-organizing plans and such… a lot of our forces have been focused in the re-adaptation of Esthar ever since the end of the Sorceress War; there still are a lot of monsters running lose through the city…" the SeeD Commander explained with an uninterested tone, focusing once more on his much too numerous files.

Rinoa jumped, gasping in realization. "That reminds me… have you seen Laguna, lately?"

Squall's fingers around his pen crisped tensely, his shoulders cringing as his stomach jolted nauseously, before he forced his body to become normal again and he resumed his writing.

"No…" he mumbled, forcing the emotionless mask to slide back properly on his face. Apparently, it did not work since Rinoa was again staring at him suspiciously.

"What's wrong, Squall," she demanded; it wasn't a question, it was an order and she made it quite clear by laying her hands on her hips.

"Nothing… leave me alone…" he insisted. Rinoa didn't move.

Squall looked up, slowly, glaring at the young woman menacingly. "Unless you hadn't noticed, Rinoa, I have _a lot_ of work to do."

"Well, that's a reason more to tell me what's wrong, isn't it? The sooner we're done, the sooner you can continue," she persisted stubbornly.

The brown haired man's jaw twitched and he stood up abruptly. He walked harshly towards the shorter girl, grabbing her arm as he pulled her towards the door.

"Wha – Squall! You can't just throw me o-"

"Yes, I _can_," he hissed through clenched teeth, tightening his grip around her bare arm. "You're a civilian, as I recall, and I'm the Commander of this establishment, so unless you want me to call in the guards on you, you'll just walk away nicely…" he warned, pushing Rinoa outside coldly and releasing her arm before walking back to his desk and resuming his paperwork.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw the dark haired woman standing in the door frame for several minutes, her hand still lying on her hips angrily, before she finally groaned in defeat and strolled away heatedly.

**_That's one problem settled… _**Squall sighed, reaching a hand up to his face as he massaged his temple. This would be yet another very long day… and everyone _else_ was out enjoying their Friday night… **_God I fucking _**_hate** being Commander…**_

****

****

****-----------

****

****

"Seifer?" the scarred blond man looked up from his book, raising an eyebrow questioningly at the lithe form of the youth standing in the doorway of his room. It was sort of late, how come the teenager wasn't out partying with his friends on a hot Friday night?

His emerald eyes lingered on Zack as he studied the young man's form a little longer than he usually allowed himself to…

Ever since he'd met Zack a few weeks ago, he'd thought him cute… well more than cute… those soft dark locks which fell before his onyx eyes, made him adorably handsome. His soft, ivory skin complimented beautifully his dark shade of hair and that smooth, luscious mouth was to die for… not to mention that lithe, yet muscular body- well let's just say that if Seifer didn't have a least bit decency left in his body, he would have hurled himself at the young man and taken him many times by now.

Seifer straightened himself on his bed, sitting up, laying his back against the wall.

"What's up, kid?" he said as Zack entered his room, sitting on the arm chair a few feet away from his bed. Seifer always gave his younger friend this title to make his own train of sinful thoughts leave his mind.

"I have a name you know…" Zack grumbled, glaring at him.

"Oh, I know, but I got a reputation here, y'know!" Seifer flashed a devilish grin, seeing the younger boy's frown.

"I've heard you're the person in Garden's history who's tried out the SeeD field exams the most times without even being accepted…" Seifer's mischievous gaze turned into a glare, but he decided to listen to wherever Zack was going with this.

"I was just wondering why you decided to come back here even though you failed all those times, and knowing that people would look strangely at you even more so 'cause of what happened with the Sorceress and all… weren't you scared of what could have happened? Of the people's reaction?" Zack gazed at him in interest as he asked all of this.

"I'm not scared of anything… being cautious only stops you from obtaining your dream…" Seifer smirking cockily, "… but _you_ should be little _more_…" Seifer stood up slowly, walking predatorily towards the sitting boy.

He heard the dark haired cadet gulp nervously as he shrank deeper into the armchair. Seifer gave a feral grin, lowering his upper body to bring his face to the level of the youth's face as he laid his hands on both of the chair's arms and by doing so, trapping the boy in his seat.

Seifer could hear the pace of the Zack's breathing quicken as he pushed his face even closer to the other's. He felt the dark haired youth gasp loudly as he tilted his head to the side, bringing his mouth to his ear, nearly touching the skin.

"Boo…" Seifer whispered against the soft earlobe before pulling away, straightening up as he laughed loudly.

"What the **_hell _**is your **_problem_**?!" Zack shouted as he stood up abruptly, blushing in embarrassment… or was it something else?

Seifer fell on his mattress, laughing hysterically.

"Oh man… that was… just… too much!!" he exclaimed, choking on the words between throaty chuckles.

"That wasn't fucking **_funny_**!" Zack growled furiously.

Seifer stopped laughing abruptly, hearing the younger boy's tone and realizing he had truly angered him. Sitting up on his bed, he looked at Zack. The murderous glare the usually dark, wide, innocent eyes were now sending at him nearly made the tall blond squirm.

"Hey… it was just a joke, Zack…" he defended, shrugging.

"Well, it wasn't fucking funny, okay?" the short young man howled angrily. "I don't know what the fuck you're trying to prove, Almasy, but it's not working!" with that, the dark haired youth stormed out of Seifer's room, leaving the older man to frown guiltily as he slumped against the mattress miserably.

"I really suck at this…" Seifer moaned gloomily, as he smothered a pillow on his face, groaning angrily.

-----------

The week-end had finally arrived and Seifer Almasy was extremely thankful for it as he lay sprawled against the fountain at the Garden Entrance, wearing his usual black baggy pants, low on his waist, and his dark blue V-collared tank-top under his grey, long and heavy trench-coat.

He dug his left hand in the inside pocket of his coat and took out a pack of cigarette. Taking his lighter from inside it, he brought a cigarette between his lips and flicked the lighter, closing his eyes as he instinctively brought the flame to the tip of the tobacco stick.

"Hey! No smokin' in here!" a familiar, energetic voice exclaimed. The cigarette was pulled away from his lips before Seifer could even open his eyes and protest.

"Don't you know this shit is bad for you?" the voice said as Seifer opened his eyes and glanced up at a grinning, SeeD uniform clad, Zell Dincht who stood before a group of junior cadets that were all no older than 10 years of age.

Seifer bent his upper body to the side, cocking his head to examine them better. They were all staring at him in fearful curiosity. Seifer smirked evilly at them, causing them to all cringe at the same time as they took a step back.

Seifer glanced back at Zell, raising an eyebrow at him mockingly. "Got yourself a fan club Chicken Wuss?" he exclaimed. Zell instantly glared at him.

"I'd watch your words if I were you, Almasy," The blond, spiky haired young man warned.

Seifer stood up slowly, straightening his full, impressive height before the much smaller man, who followed his whole movement with his eyes, raising his chin slowly to hold the glare he was shooting at the former Sorceress's Knight.

"And why should I? Gonna set your kids loose on me, are you?" Zell looked very vulnerable indeed, standing before the taller man who towered him over 5'5" form, but he held the glare courageously still, smirking in a satisfied manner at Seifer's words. He folded his arms over his chest proudly, closing his eyes and sniffing in superiority.

"Because, unless you haven't noticed, these kids are my students, which makes me an instructor; meaning… _your_ superior… you know, the kind of people that can make you sweep floors for hours and hours of _fun_ if you piss them off?"

Seifer's eyes widened slightly, before he began laughing loudly. Zell gaped at him, confused. His jaw almost hit the floor when Seifer, the one whom had taunted him since the early age of 3, swung his arm around his shoulder, still chuckling.

"Hyne… this is the best I've heard ever since I got here… Zell Dincht… kiddy instructor!" he burst into a loud fit of laughter once more, still holding the shorter man around his shoulder.

Zell, uncomfortable, looked down at his students and pushed himself away from Seifer.

"Alright, Hotdog-Squad, go back and wait for me by the Quad… Irvine should be there, just tell him I had to do something important… he'll take you guys to Balamb, alright?" he said, just as Seifer began laughing even louder.

The kids all straightened up, saluting their instructor, chanting loudly "Aye, sir!" before they all scuttled away back inside the Garden.

"H-Hot… dog… squad!" Seifer sobbed hysterically in his amusement, brushing the tears of mirth away from his eyes.

"Shaddup!" Zell said, but couldn't help but grin up at the laughing man. His chuckles were endearing. He had never seen the arrogant bastard laugh in any other way than a bitter, movking manner before today.

When Seifer's chuckles diminished and he sat back down on the fountain railing, Zell followed, sitting beside him.

"So, I'd heard you were back… I was really busy these last few weeks or else I woulda come to see you sooner."

Seifer's chuckles had finally died away, but he still looked as amused, his eyes shining with mischief as he stared at his child-hood friend.

"Aaaw… Zelly wuvs me! Please… I really don't need your bullshit compassion, Chicken Wuss…" Seifer shook his head, pushing another cigarette between his lips.

The tattooed man frowned, tearing the cig away from him and crushing it between his fist.

"Fuck! I pay for these things, Chicken!" Seifer growled, glaring murderously at spiky haired fellow.

"That shit is bad for you! We're not allowed to consume any kind of drug in Garden and you know that as well as I do… besides, being a fighter like you are, I'd figured you were smart enough not to ruin your health," Zell shrugged uninterestedly, "… guess not…"

"Fuck you…" Seifer groaned, which caused Zell to beam brightly at him. "I don't smoke anyways… I just puff on 'em from time to time to relax…"

"You need to go to a Massage Salon then…" Zell's icy eyes twinkled with mischief as he raised his hands up, slowly bringing them closer to Seifer's body. "Or maybe you'd want me to do it?"

The emerald eyed man's face twisted in disgust. "Don't you fuckin' dare…" he warned, causing the other to chuckle.

"Aaaw… but don't you wanna feel my _miracle fingers_?" he twitched his eyebrows suggestively.

Seifer's eyes widened in horror. "You're scaring the shit outta me, Dincht…" he pushed his body a few inches away from Zell's which caused the man to chuckle once more.

"Seriously, Seifer… it's good to have you back –" Zell glanced down at his knees "- even though you're bastard and all…" he added quickly.

Seifer glanced at him, eyebrow raised, but then smiled weakly, as he reached out his large hand to Zell's head and ruffled the spiky blond hair, causing the younger youth to screech in horror.

"Dude! Do you have any idea how long it takes me to **_fix this thing_**?!?!" he shrieked, standing up, trying to pull the locks back in the air, glaring at his former bully, who was now laughing heartily, head cocked backwards.

Zell's glare instantly softened.

"So, what have you been doing all this time, man?" Zell asked, sitting back beside the former Sorceress's Knight, laying his hands against his knees. Seifer frowned in thought, remembering all the looks of horror and hatred he had received everywhere he had gone to find a new place to live in the past 6 months… in vain of course.

"Traveled a lot..." he mumbled, staring down at his feet, "I tried getting myself a job… eventually ended up in Windhill… they paid me to kill monsters. It's the only thing I'm really good at and besides, it's not like they'd let someone like _me_ work anywhere else."

Compassion filled Zell's icy blue eyes, but he chose to ignore it. "I came back here a few times when I had days off… Security would never let me in until I fought my way up to the fuckin' Headmistress's office… freakin' shitheads…"

Zell chuckled. "Yeah, the new security dudes are pretty stubborn over here - take their jobs seriously and all - but at least they're better than those freaky faculty people, though, aren't they?"

"Ever wondered what they had underneath their robes?" both men stared at each other for several moments before shuddering in disgust. They then feel silent, both staring off into space, lost in their own thoughts.

"You've changed…" Zell finally said softly. Seifer looked up from his knees, staring off ahead with a dazed look tracing his slightly tanned face.

"I came back here to redeem myself… fucked up, huh?" Seifer smiled bitterly.

Soft clanking noise made both men look to their left. They saw a dark haired young woman wearing a blue summer dress coming towards them.

"Could you make any less noise with those?" Seifer grumbled, nodding towards the woman's low high heels, but then froze as he finally realized who she was.

"Rinoa…" he said as a sudden fear engulfed him. He felt stupid… pathetic… but in the end, he just didn't want to have to feel any guilt anymore… so he let the emotions wash over him.

Surprisingly, she smiled at him. "Hi, Seifer…" they shared an extensive stare, before Seifer broke it, looking down to his feet as he laid his elbows against his knees, holding his head between his hands.

"Rin! What're you doin' here?" Zell exclaimed, standing up to give her a quick hug.

"Just passing by, y'know… wanted to see you guys… oh, nice hair by the way, Zell!" she teased, smiling, but there seemed to be something bothering her.

Seifer frowned. **_Passing by? Isn't she Squall's _**_sweetheart** now? **_

****

"Just came back from Squall's office… he threw me out!" she chuckled, but it sounded very bitter.

"Something up?" Zell asked frowning in concern as he still attempted to pull his hair up in the air.

"I think he was worried I'd start hitting on him again or something. Really… he should know better; I mean, we _both_ thought it better not to be together anymore, so why would I suddenly want to be back with him if I knew it wasn't going to work?" she chuckled again, shaking her head and smiling fondly at the thought of the anti-social, stormy eyed man.

Seifer then looked up, straightening himself. "You mean, you guys aren't together anymore?"

Both Zell and Rinoa blinked at Seifer. "It's been almost two months now…"

"Yeah, they broke it off a few weeks before you came back…" Zell explained.

"Oh… well… sorry, I guess…" Seifer shrugged.

"It's far better off this way… but I'm still worried though…" Rinoa said, frowning.

"Just 'cause he was all acting funny since he didn't want you to flirt?" Zell wondered.

"Oh no, of course not… but he became really tense when I mentioned Laguna to him… do you know if anything happened between them, or something?"

Seifer froze. **_Oh_****_ something happened between them alright… Leonhart's takin' it hard… wish I could help the guy, Hyne knows he fuckin' deserves to lay off the stress… or maybe it's just caffeine… hell he probably needs to lay off both… psychotic bastard…_**

****

When he looked up, both Zell and Rinoa were staring at him strangely.

"He's smiling dreamily…" Zell whispered behind his hand at Rinoa.

"Should we take cover?" she whispered back, which caused both of them to chuckle and Seifer to snort.

"Do you know anything, Seifer?" Rinoa asked suspiciously.

Seifer blinked awkwardly. "Oh, so now you think the guy who's been the Ice Princess's rival since the beginning of time, has become the _confident_, huh?" the blond haired man felt the urge to snort loudly at the irony of it all.

Rinoa narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him.

"All I know, is that the last time Squall saw Laguna, was the day after Seifer arrived. He'd requested Xu the permission to speak with Squall in private, but he didn't tell anyone what the President had said to him, that I know of… as far as I'm concerned, it's none of my business, really…" Zell shrugged.

"Exactly what Leonhart would say…" Seifer smirked before standing up. "Well… I'm off people… later…"

"You know, Seifer…" Rinoa began, causing the man to look over his shoulder, eyebrow raised questioningly.

"Squall seems to think pretty highly of you, from what I picked up between the lines, when I spoke to him earlier,"

Seifer frowned. **_Is this a trick question or something? What the hell?_**

****

"Does he now?" he simply replied before turning around and walking away back inside Garden. He couldn't help but smile to himself. What if Rinoa had said was true? That Squall thought highly of him? The mere thought sent butterflies through the tall blond's stomach. No one had _ever _thought highly of him that he knew of… and Squall was just… was just… well… Squall…

The weak smile tracing his lips widened. Yes, Squall was certainly something. Strong-willed, determined, clever, thoughtful… Seifer admired him for all these things, but for his ability to control his emotions, more specifically… and he possessed such _raw_ energy, even though, with his quiet and cool exterior, he rarely showed the burning passion inside his soul. The unruly haired man only showed it while fighting and even then, he rarely revealed anything. The only few times Seifer had glimpsed it in the man's stormy eyes was when he had fought with _him_… his rival…

Oh yes, the irony of it all…

The Garden was very silent at this time of day during week-ends and Seifer reveled to that fact. Even though he was himself a usually lively man, ever since the Ultimecia fiasco, he had found the peace and quiet more and more appealing.

Squall and him hadn't spoken ever since the strange incident between them in the Training center. They'd only just walked past each other a few times. The cold man's lingering gaze towards him, which rested slightly longer than usual, was the only recognition Squall gave him as a silent explanation that nothing had changed between them, that he _didn't_ want it to… and for that Seifer was glad. He felt even more connected to him than their rivalry ever had strangely made him feel in the past, but their understanding was perfect the way it had always been; silent. But every time he found himself enjoying the silence, Seifer's thoughts always found the stormy eyed brunette and the way he had let the blond rest against him as he had deliberately broken down in front of him, needing the comfort of warmth; the way Squall had told him of _his_ bothers as if trying to reassure his rival in a strange way…

Just as he was about to reach the dormitories, a low shriek echoing through the corridors suddenly caught his attention. Seifer stopped dead in his tracks, frowning, as he looked around. Had he just imagined the sound?

And then it came again, even louder… but this time, it sounded more like a cry… and it was followed by laughter… cold, malevolent laughter.

Seifer rushed out of the Dorm hall and towards where he could hear the sounds coming from. He stopped in front of the hall which led to the training center.

Another pained cry, followed by a loud thump and laughter again.

**_Someone's being beat up…_** the realization dawned on Seifer as he ran towards the Training Center, stopping dead his tracks as he saw two young men hovering over a weaker one, who lay lifeless on the ground surrounded by a small pool of blood.

"What the **_fuck _**are you doing?!" Seifer growled angrily. The guys both stood up, startled as they whirled around.

The red-haired one seemed to look relieved as he recognized who it was. "What do you care? Like you haven't done this to fuckin' fags like him, before?" he mocked, kicking the still form of the young man lying, beaten, on the floor, who moaned in pain.

Seifer glared menacingly at them, walking predatorily closer to them. "Unlike you shits, I know what the word "honor" means… and beating someone up, two against one and taken by surprise _ain't_ it…" he hissed threateningly.

The two teenagers suddenly looked horrified and ran away. "I'LL GET YOU YET YOU FUCKIN' COWARDS!" Seifer barked at their retreating backs. He strode over to the unconscious youth, kneeling beside him, only to gasp in horror as he realized who the person was.

"Zack…" he choked, quickly pushing an arm under the youth's shoulder and the back of his knees, pulling him up as he hurried over to the infirmary, clinging the younger man to his chest. "Don't you fuckin' die on me…" he whispered pleadingly.

-----------

TBC…

-----------

**_Author's note:_**

_Ouch!!_

_Alright, I know it seems like there's been a lot of lust from Seifer towards, Zack and that won't change… but I promise you, this WON'T be a Seifer/Zack fic in the end…_

_It WILL be a Seifer/Squall no matter WHAT it may seem like at some places and no matter what might happen between the two of them, so please don't worry!!_

_I'm waiting impatiently for your comments!_

_See ya soon!!_


	7. Fuckin' Ice Cube

**_Comments :_****__******_Aaaaah… so here it finally is…_

_I hope all of you will be relieved with this new chapter!_

_Don't__ worry this will eventually be a Seifer/Squall fic… if anything ever happens between Zack and Seifer, well it won't last and it'll only be a mistaken for comfort kinda thing that will happen… I dunno if you understand what that means… but it doesn't really matter, because I'm not even sure if that will happen…_

_I plan on making SeeD exams happening soon… and Raine appearances (however she may appear… no I don't plan on resurrecting her or anything!)…Laguna appearances… because… come on, Squall can't ignore his father forever, can he?_

_Anyways… hope you like it!!_

_Enjoy!!_

****

**Chapter 7**

**Fuckin' Ice Cube…******

****

The sleeping lithe form lying peacefully in the eternally white sheeted infirmary bed grunted softly as it attempted to shift position. The covers dropped to the boy's waist, uncovering his naked, bandaged chest.

"Woooooah, there, bud…" the blond haired man soothed, straightening up from his slumped position on the floor, sitting against the wall and kneeled up to the bed, pushing the younger boy gently on his back. "Easy… you don't want to be openin' up those wounds, kid…" Seifer held down on the bed the younger man by the shoulders delicately, yet firmly enough to restrain any further movement from the black haired youth.

Another pained grunt escaped the cadet's pale lips, his ashen features suddenly grimacing as consciousness seemed to crawl its way back to the boy's mind and those wide, innocent dark eyes fluttered open. Seifer loosened his grip on the boy's slender, yet muscular, shoulders, staring down intently at his friend for a few minutes before finally pulling his hands completely away.

Zack moaned, laying his arm above his face to shield his pupils from the invading light, which Seifer's body had protected him from until now. A low croak gurgled inside his throat as he seemingly attempted to talk, which brought another moan and a miserable sigh as the boy seemed to go completely limp on the mattress, defeated.

A soft screeching sound made him squirm as a chair was pulled to the left side of his bed, the metal legs scratching against the marble floor, followed by soft low chuckles.

"Well, you seem alive enough to me, so that's a good thing, right?" came Seifer's amused comment as he sat down on the chair. It was the blond man's turn to moan loudly as he stretched his arms widely. "Shit… I'm never sleeping on the floor again; you better remember that, next time you let yourself get beat the shit outta you," he grumbled.

Zack visibly cringed, moving slightly his arm away from his eyes, to glance hesitatingly at the older man, his large chocolate eyes still squinting from the light. To his surprise, a scowl was not was he received for his staring, but a warm, _genuine_ smile, which simply caused him to squirm once more, blush, and lay back his arm to cover his face and groan, which _that_ brought yet another set of chuckles from Seifer.

"C'mon man, no need to be like that…" the broad shouldered man protested at the youth's attitude, ruffling the cheek-length, silky dark hair, which brought yet another cringe from Zack.

"Why-" came the throaty croak from the boy's mouth and he erupted into a soft coughing fit.

"Where the hell did she put it - I'm sure she brought one a few hours ago…" the tall man muttered to himself, standing up as he glanced around the room, before walking over to the white curtains at the foot of the bed which were closed to give patients privacy, and tearing them open loudly, walking past them, and closing them back behind him.

"There it is…" Seifer grumbled behind the curtains, emerging from them a few seconds later to produce a large glass of water in his hand, smirking victoriously and walking back closer to the bed, handing it to Zack.

The dark haired youth eyed it from beneath his arm for a few moments. He finally laid it on his side on the mattress, and attempting to push himself up off the mattress, he gave another pained grunt.

"Wait, wait,_ wait_…" Seifer grumbled walking over to the bed, putting the glass of water down on the bedside table. He wrapped his arm around the youth's waist and Zack's arm around his own shoulders to pull the boy slightly off the mattress. He grabbed the pillows on the bed with his free hand, bending his upper body carefully, to prevent the body against his from falling to the side by shifting its weight on him instead, patted the cushions a few times against the wall and cautiously directed the boy in a comfortable sitting position, his back against the pillows on the wall.

"There…" Seifer said in a satisfied manner, straightening himself up and holding out the glass of water to the younger cadet, who was staring at him, eyes wide.

The boy reached a shaky hand towards the glass, but before he could put his fingers around it fully, Seifer pulled it away abruptly, which caused Zack to look up at him abruptly, almost fearfully.

"Don't look at me like that, idiot… there's no _way _I'm letting you hold it… you look like a fuckin' Parkinson (1) case." He scowled at Zack, smirking, before pushing the glass of water to the boy's lips, tilting his head back by pressing his fingers under the dark haired youth's chin. The stubborn boy kept his lips firmly closed against the glass, glaring at Seifer to make it perfectly clear that he would not allow such treatment directed at him.

"Deal with it, bud, 'cause you'll be gettin' lots of it for a few days…" Seifer ordered, glaring back evenly at the cadet and pressing the glass of water more firmly against his lips as he understood the silent anger in Zack's eyes. The teenager held his fierce look for a few more minutes and finally gave up, opening his mouth and gulping down the water half-heartedly.

After Zack indulged himself of half the of water, Seifer pulled the glass away from the boy's lips, putting it back down on the night table, Zack never dropping his glare until Seifer turned back to him and grinned, causing him to look away abruptly.

Silence then drowned both of them into awkwardness until Zack shifted slightly on the bed, coughing as he looked down at his bandaged hands which laid in his lap.

"How much did you see…?" the dark haired youth then asked softly, still staring down at his hands stubbornly, frowning.

"Enough…" Seifer answered angrily.

"Sorry…" Zack mumbled, head snapping up at the sudden violent screeching of metal against marble, Seifer having stood up abruptly from his chair.

"_Sorry_?! What the _fuck_ should _you_ be sorry about, huh?!" Seifer growled, glaring down furiously at the boy, who was now practically cowering under his emerald stare. The tall man instantly calmed down, noticing the fear he was drawing from Zack.

"I'm not mad at you, man… but at _those_ bastards who did this to you!" Seifer explained, palms tightening into fists.

Zack looked back down to his tightening fists, smiling bitterly. "Why are you, really? I mean, they did what they had to do right…? Beat it out of the dishonorable **_faggot_**…" he spat the last word venomously, before looking back up at Seifer, with the same sour smile tracing his lips. "It's true, you know… I _am_… I'm a _faggot_…"

Seifer bent down, grabbing Zack's shoulders violently. "Idiot!" he hissed at him. "You better take that back, if you know what's good for you!"

Zack chuckled cynically, looking away from Seifer. "What… are you going to beat it out of me too, or something?"

A loud smacking sound tore through the room as Seifer's gloved hand slapped Zack's pale cheek, his head snapping to the side by the force of the blow.

"Don't you dare give me that self-pity shit, Zack… you're better than that…" Seifer snarled, sitting down on the edge of the bed, as the boy stared at him, eyes wide, and hand caressing his sore cheek.

"So you like gettin' banged in the ass; so what?" Seifer smirked, looking up at the wall in front of him. He didn't have to look towards his younger friend to know he was blushing.

"Gee, Almasy, you put it so _nicely_…" Zack mumbled.

"Well, it's not more complicated than that, is it? Honor has nothin' to do with who you wanna bang. _Those_ fuckwads were the _dishonorable_ ones; they're the ones who should be ashamed, _not_ you…"

Seifer glanced back at his friend, laying his hands down on the mattress behind him, supporting his upper body as he bent backwards slightly. Zack simply looked down, his shoulders slumping miserably.

"You go ahead and try convincing the rest of Garden just that then, if it's so simple…" the dark haired youth sighed, laying his head back against the wall, staring up at the ceiling.

"The Commander of this Garden passes his days clad in a suit made entirely of leather for fuck's sake; you think a lot of people mind you being Gay?" Seifer barked. Zack looked up, eyes widening, erupting in soft fits of chuckles after a few minutes before he choked on them, encircling his arms around his stomach in pain.

"Damn… don't make me laugh…" Zack whined, glaring up at his older friend. Seifer grinned devilishly, standing up and ruffling the youth's dark silky hair.

"We'll talk about this later; I've got an appointment…" Seifer moved towards the curtains, his grey trench coat flapping behind him in his hasty steps.

"What? _What_ kind of appointment?" Zack stuttered, startled, straightening up on the bed.

Seifer looked over his shoulder, smirking. "Kickin' ass, kind of appointment…" he said darkly, his emerald eyes flaring in rage, reaching for his Hyperion, carefully slumped against the wall and settling it over his left shoulder as he rushed out of the infirmary.

The blond, broad shouldered young man strolled through the corridors furiously, ignoring all the glances other students shot at him, stopping their previous occupations to watch his enraged display. He knocked into anyone who stood in his way or made the error of not paying attention to their surroundings. Finally, he reached the elevator and fisted the controllers with a bit too much force than he should have for the electric panel gave a little jolt, but the elevator swished open just as nicely.

He walked inside, punching the buttons to the commander's floor (which had been built below the Headmaster's office a few months ago) and waited impatiently for the doors to open once more. He wasted no time to rush outside the elevator, pushing the doors of the restroom open violently as soon as he arrived.

A woman behind a desk, who was on the phone gasped audibly at the sight of one furious former Soceress's Knight, dropping her phone and straightening on her chair. Seifer glared viciously at her, defying the woman to speak.

"S-Sir, you need an appointment to-" her squeaky protest was cut off at the sound of doors banging open loudly as Seifer rammed through the Commander's office.

On the other side, the dark bushy haired young man whom sat behind his large desk looked up from the pile of paper calmly, eyebrow rising just as steadily. The stormy eyed youth cocked his head to the side, glancing behind Seifer at the doors of his office, which were still flapping back and forth noisily, caused by the force of the impact which the tall blond haired man had brought upon them while entering.

Squall straightened his head back, eyebrow vanishing under his longish locks as he cocked it further up at his former rival.

"Is there a reason why you suddenly decided to ruin my doors?" came Squall's question, tone as low and emotionless as ever as he eyed the flailing doors behind Seifer again, eyes resting on the small gash in the oak wood which had probably been unintentionally damaged by Seifer's Gunblade when he barged in, sword still in hand.

"Simple… it was in my fuckin' way, _Commander_," Seifer seethed, laying his weapon against the nearest chair. Squall then raised both his eyebrows calmly at him.

"My doors haven't done anything to you, Almasy… find something else to _pick on_…" Squall mocked in a bored tone, glancing back down at the pile of papers on his desk, reaching out for his abandoned pen.

Seifer growled loudly, ramming the palms of his hands fiercely on the top of Squall's desk and thus, sending many sheets of paper flying down on the floor, and rippling the rest awfully. This brought a slight twitch in the dark haired young man's jaw, but he simply glanced up at Seifer with the same coolness as before, staring back at the man who was glaring down at him heatedly.

"… so _now_ it's my **_desk_** you want to pick on?" Squall scorned, a weak twirl gracing the corner of his pale lips.

"Stop with the bullshitting, Leonhart!" Seifer hissed threateningly.

"I don't know what kind of **_evil_** furniture got to you, Almasy, but leave _mine _alone… don't worry; it won't bite… I _promise_…"

Seifer pushed himself off the desk, straightening himself up in front of it before punching its top once more. "Fuck! I said **_drop the shit_**, Leonhart!" he churned loudly.

Squall frowned, putting on a more serious mask as he pushed his chair backwards with his feet, folding his legs and arms still staring up at Seifer.

Several minutes passed in silence, stormy blue mixing with flaming emerald as they held the fiery gaze, almost defying each other… of what, neither knew...

"_Well?!_ What is it?" impatience suddenly slipped through Squall's emotionless façade.

"Zack…" Seifer said bluntly, receiving yet again another of those eyebrow rises from the SeeD Commander. "Zachary Wynsnam… _ring__ a bell_?" he said viciously through clenched teeth.

"Your new groupie?"

Seifer glared. "He's a good kid; he's one of your new, most promising fuckin' students, _Squall_…"

"… and?" Squall blinked uninterestedly at him.

"Don't you fuckin' read your medical reports, _Ice cube_?"

Squall simply blinked indifferently at him again, his jaw twitching more visibly this time.

"The guy got himself beaten by _two_ guys because he's gay… and by beaten, I don't mean, _nicely_ wooped his ass a little, I mean fuckin' broken bones and blood all over the place, Leonhart," Seifer explained furiously. Squall then stood up from his chair slowly, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"_You're_ telling someone off for _beating_…?" the SeeD commander eyed the former Sorceress's Knight doubtfully, letting his arm slump down to his sides. The fury seemed to engulf Seifer completely by the words.

"I _never_ did anything like those _cowards_ did to Zack! They fuckin' ganged up on him and jumped him when he least expected it! Two against one, Squall… **_two_** against fuckin' **_one_**!" Seifer waved his hands in front of his face angrily. "I fought with the bastards who tried to show they were _better_ than me, and I shut them right up by _proving_ them how wrong they were… I did it for honor, not to break someone's mind and body apart!" he growled.

Squall seemed to tense, his eyes misting with unknown emotions as he turned to face his rival completely.

"Don't even fuckin' **_go_** there… don't you **_dare_** compare this to what happened with Ultimecia…" Seifer warned, pointing his gloved index at the shorter man.

"What do you want me to do then… why are you telling me all of this?" Squall snapped.

"I'm telling you to fuckin' kick these shits out before I break them myself, _Commander_…"

"Do you know who did this?" Squall inquired sighing.

"Don't know 'em by name, but I'd recognize 'em anywhere…"

"Well, we need to know if the reason this happened is really what Zack claims-"

"Squall… I heard 'em talking before I interrupted… and who the hell fuckin' _cares_ why they did it! No one in their right mind would do this to a kid! And **_they_** did, because they didn't like what kinda people Zack wants to screw?" Seifer raised a gloved hand to his short golden locks, brushing his fingers through them roughly. "How the fuck can you be so CALM about all this?!" Seifer raged. Squall took a few steps closer glaring up at him.

"What, you suppose I could just drag their asses up here and beat them senseless too?" he hissed at Seifer angrily, his calm suddenly fading, surprising the taller man slightly. "You want me to lower myself to their level, perhaps?"

"Of course not you _idiot_, but maybe you could be a little more sensitive as to what kind of shit Zack's mind's goin' through right now and not just stand there, with that stick up your ass, acting _cool_ like nothing's happened!" Seifer barked.

"I can't just throw them out without even looking into it, Seifer! I have to follow some procedures; I can't just snap my fingers and voilà! This **_doesn't_** work like your blood thirsty mind, does!" Squall almost regretted his words as soon as they escaped his mouth. This was one of the reasons he so thoroughly needed to keep his cool ; his emotions were too volatile… especially anger…

Seifer's body suddenly tensed in his complete fury before he grabbed the younger man's collar violently, pulling the shorter man towards him roughly.

"Don't you fuckin' **dare**... because unlike **_you_**, _Leonhart_, **_I_** have feelings for others..." he hissed through clenched teeth, inches away from the dark haired young man's face.

Squall jerked himself away harshly from his rival, backing away as any trace of previous emotion softly slid away from his features, before turning away completely, snapping, "Whatever…"

Seifer inhaled sharply, glaring hatefully at the back of the shorter man's back, almost succumbing to the temptation of twisting his neck in two, but inhaled deeply once more instead and turned around as well.

Satisfied with his newly found composure, he chuckled bitterly and turned back to face Squall, who still had his back to him, standing calmly, laying his weight on his left leg and caused his hip to hunch out, almost gracefully as he rested his gloved hand against his leather clad waist.

Oh yes… Seifer had _always_ known how to make Squall lose control, and he _knew_ he could do it again…

"You know... with all that's happened to you, Leonhart... I thought that _now_ you'd be a little more supportive of your**_ own_**..." Seifer smirked, seeing the younger man's shoulders twitch slightly. He turned around slowly, glaring at him over his shoulder, yet frowning in confusion.

Seifer shook his head, sighing. "Well, c'mon Squall… with all that leather and those belts of yours, think I didn't notice?"

Slowly, yet surely, the stormy eyed young man turned completely, facing his long time rival, glaring intensely, the frown now completely disappeared.

"Shut up," Squall ordered, yet keeping his tone blank, as much as his apparent rage allowed.

The crooked smile on the tall golden haired man's lips widened as he clicked his tongue, walking slowly around the shorter young man, whose stormy gaze followed his every movement carefully.

"Squall, Squall, **_Squall_**..." Seifer sighed again, stopping before his rival. "Why do we always **_end up_** like this; me telling you the truth, you wanting to suddenly rip my guts out..." he sighed again, smirking malevolently. "…gettin' boring you know..."

"What the _hell_ are you getting at with this, _Seifer_..." Squall hissed up at him, his grey eyes flaring with rage.

"I'm just trying to understand why you're so hesitant to help someone who's like **_yourself, _**Squall..." Seifer frowned in a falsely worried fashion.

"What-"

"I heard you broke up with Rinoa just before I came back to Garden, _Squall_..." the dark haired young man's body seemed to tense immensely at the words, yet he held the glare he sent the taller man with unwavering fire.

"What **_ever_** happened to the "_perfectly_ in love", couple, hm? I thought you two'd grow old and die beside each other... yes... you made such an _adorable _picture..."

"Seifer-"

"Seems like something finally **_came up_** and disturbed your little paradise, huh?" Seifer chuckled, eyes widening innocently. Squall took a threatening step closer to him. "… or…wait... was it the opposite... maybe something... **_wouldn't_** come up?"

The SeeD Commander's nostrils flared in rage, his blue stormy eyes seemingly ablaze. "Take… that… back…" he hissed.

"See what I mean by you wantin' to rip my guts out whenever I tell the truth, _Squall_?" Seifer cocked his head innocently to the side. "Come on... it's nothing to be ashamed of really... you're not the only one… I'm sure Rinoa doesn't mind that you couldn't… **_get it up_**… she's a very understanding woman, you kno-"

Before Seifer could place another word, Squall's shorter body had pounced upon him, throwing him violently to the floor and fell down on top of him as he punched his stomach forcefully. Seifer felt the air completely shoved out of his lungs, as he choked down to inhale the precious oxygen. Without even regaining his breath, his left fist collided powerfully against Squall's jaw, drawing a slight crack from the bones beneath the pale skin. And then he was pushing his body upwards, only trap Squall beneath him, crushing him to the floor.

And so their battle began; fist, feet, knee and even teeth crashed on each other's skin or whatever part of the other's body could ram against the other's. They rolled, shoved, threw each other in the most painful of ways, in a hatred and passion more intense than they had ever felt coursing through their bodies before.

At some point, a high shriek erupted, coming from the door of the Commander's office, followed by running and the sound of someone dialling a phone, but neither paid attention to anything else but the carnal engagement in which they were both determined to win.

And then, "**_WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?!_**"

Just as Seifer had been pulling at Squall's silky brown hair fiercely to prevent the latter from tearing a chunk of skin off his forearm - which had been holding Squall in a head-lock - with his teeth, their bodies stilled instantly as a very furious looking Xu stomped inside the room, hands on her hips, her brown eyes burning with rage.

They both stared at her, unmoving from their positions.

"How old are you two?! **_FOUR_**?! Get your asses off the floor, you pathetic _dogs_!!" she raged.

Squall thrust his elbow backwards, hitting Seifer's ribs brutally, causing him to choke as he took advantage of the weakness to push the taller man's body from on top of his and stood up, cringing in pain as his hips ached painfully by the movement… not to mention every other part of his body… especially his collarbone for some reason…

He looked down at his hands. No more gloves… apparently those had been discarded during their fight one way or another. But now all he found on his skin was fresh blood… perhaps Seifer… or his… or both mixed together as the crimson color dripped slightly of his pale skin.

He glanced down at his body. His leather jacket was still intact on his shoulders, but the thin white shirt he always wore underneath was half way torn apart, leaving his chest almost completely bare. He could see several dark marks upon his pale skin. He cringed at the sight of two deep, bleeding gashes on his collar bone – bite marks - hence the stinging pain in _that_ part of his body… and why he'd had the sudden urge to bite off Seifer's arm, just as Xu had entered the office.

**_What the fuck just happened here… we both turned into two blood thirsty _**_animals** or something… that's… that's…**_

****

"Disgusting…" Seifer grumbled behind him, shrugging off his grey coat and throwing it on the chair behind Squall's desk as he spat the blood in his mouth.

**_My chair…_******Squall glared at the arrogant blond, even as he removed that dark, blue, sleeveless tank top of his, which was practically in the same state as his own shirt.****

**_Hyne… at least we didn't get to tear off each other's pants…_** Squall groaned. _What** just happened here… **_Squall blinked to himself, the same question floating through his mind once more, face grimacing in both pain and disgust.

"Stop putting on this freakin' show, Seifer… unless you want everyone to see that _wonderful_ state you're in?" she said, her dark eyes flashing with something almost akin to wickedness.

"And why would anyone **_see_** me, huh?" the broad shouldered man snapped, glaring at the Headmistress.

"Because you're going to the infirmary… _both of you_… and I'm not going to ask the students to nicely evacuate the corridors just to let you **_beasts_** through…"

Squall's head shot to the Headmistress's direction, eyes widening in horror yet not pronouncing any word.

"WHAT?" came Seifer's bark, mouthing Squall's own mental reaction, "Oh that's just **_great_**, _Headmistress_!" he walked over to the smaller woman. "Just take a nice long look at us for one fuckin' second! You think your Commander'll be much of a good _influence_ to your lil _cadets_ now?" he continued furiously.

Xu raised an eyebrow at him. "What **_you_ **should be worrying about right now, Almasy, is your **_own_ **ass, because **_this_** ass is going to get itself kicked the hell out of here as soon as it's not so **_bruised_ **anymore!" she hissed, stabbing his bare, beaten chest with her index repeatedly, glaring up at him threateningly.

Seifer gaped down at her, all anger almost deflating out of his aching body as realization suddenly dawned upon him.

"No," Squall protested emotionlessly before he could even stop himself. Seifer and Xu instantly turned towards him, identical expression of shock tracing their faces.

"What do you **_mean,_** "no"? The doors of your office are practically falling off their hinges; you're bruised on almost every inch of your **_body_**; the skin of your collarbone was **_bitten_ _off_**… and you're telling me _not _to expel Seifer?!" she shrieked.

"I started it… it's my fault..." Squall said, turning away from them both as he took off his leather jacket, to then rip off the battered white shirt off his shoulders and put the jacket back on his shoulders, zipping it and throwing the bloody cloth that was once his shirt on the floor in disgust.

When the dark haired Commander turned around to look at them after a few silent moments, he found them still staring confusedly at him.

"_What?_" he snapped impatiently.

Xu shook her head, sighing and waving her hand in the hair in disbelief. "Fine… I'll take your word for it… just… just go to the infirmary, will you? You're both a mess…" she headed towards Squall's desk, sitting down behind it in the large armchair and laying her head in her hands. Glancing up after a few moments, only to find them staring back at her silently, her eyes narrowed threateningly. "That was an _order_, soldiers!" she barked, causing both of them to startle slightly.

Squall nodded briefly, saluting the Headmistress before turning around calmly. Somehow the gesture seemed ridiculous to him as he remembered what he must have looked like in this beaten and wild appearance. He strolled slowly out of the office, leaving a still shocked Seifer to stare at his back in disbelief.

"What the hell are you waiting for?" Xu howled behind him.

The blond man shook his head, shaking himself out of his appalled state and willed a smirk back to his lips. "My, my… haven't _we_ got a foul mouth today, Headmistress…" he chuckled mockingly, picking up his Gunblade swinging it over his shoulder, and on the other, his grey trench coat. He strolled out of the office, barely missing the coffee mug that was forcefully hurled at his head.

Seifer moved to the elevator, throwing his hands between its closing doors just in time, and pushed them apart, causing the mechanism inside to groan loudly from the pressure.

Squall did not as much as glance at him and paid no attention to him either as the tall blond stepped beside him. They stood silently side by side, waiting for the elevator to reach the first floor.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Seifer noticed a thin line of blood pearling down one corner of his rival's pale cracked lips.

"You got blood," Seifer pointed the corner of his own lips with his gloved index, "right there…"

Squall glared viciously at Seifer, wiping the blood away calmly with the back of his hand.

"Whose fault is _that?"_ Squall snapped. Seifer simply smirked proudly, looking away from his shorter rival. He laid his bruised back against the wall, wincing slightly at the pain, but otherwise ignored it. He let his blond head fall back, resting it against the wall as well and closed his eyes. His Gundblade rested in his lowered right hand, on his side, while his trench coat still lay on his bare shoulder, held against it with his left hand.

It was the sight of two appalled cadets which greeted him when a soft "ding" caused him to open his eyes and look before him as the elevator stopped, its doors swishing open. Their eyes moved nervously back and forth between the SeeD commander and himself.

"Yeah… I kicked the shit out of hi-" a groan was shoved out of his lips as a fist thrust forcefully into his bare stomach before he could place another syllable. He instantly recoiled defensively, his arm encircling his stomach, eyes shutting closed tightly at the pain that jolted through his already throbbing body. When he finally opened his eyes, looking up, it was only to glare at the retreating back of one silent Squall Leonhart, whom many other pairs of eyes followed as he made his way towards the infirmary.

Giggles brought Seifer's attention away from the SeeD Commander and he noticed the same two students staring at him mockingly. Straightening his body, he viciously slashed his Gunblade just inches from both their terrified faces.

"Fuckin' Ice Cube…" was what the low grumble sounded like as Seifer stalked half-heartedly towards the Infirmary, ignoring all the curious glances the passing students shot at him.

-----------

TBC…

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(1) Parkinson: for those who might not know what Parkinson is, well, it's an illness that makes you shake a lot… I don't know that depths of it so… yeah… just know that these people just shake a lot…


	8. Visions of a couch potato

**_Comments:_**_ Thank you so much for your support everyone. I know I'm not the nicest of authors because I'm a lazy ass who doesn't update often, but I thank you for still reading anyways. Love you!_

_I really really really want to update RIGHT now, so I'm going to skip replying to everyone's reviews, but know that all were read and that everyone of them just made my day. You are the BEST!_

_Enjoy!_

**Chapter 8**

**Visions of a couch potato**

Doctor Kadowaki stood up abruptly, gasping, as she saw the former cadet walk slowly into her office badly bruised and bloody. She remembered seeing the longish light-brown haired man coming into her office several times in the past, but never had he presented himself in such a… _savaged_ state.

The man, whom had been staring blankly to his left until that moment, glanced at her with a bored expression, his grey eyes emotionless. Summoning up her best scowl, the Doctor strolled over to him.

"What have you gotten yourself into _this_ time, Squall?" she sighed. The doors to her office swished open once more, revealing a scowling Seifer Almasy, who appeared to be in a very similar state than the SeeD commander, if not worst.

"Yo, I was fuckin' talkin' to you, _Ice Cube_!" the tall man spat, poking Squall behind the shoulder roughly with the tip of his Gunblade.

The longish chestnut haired man simply furrowed his eyebrows as he continued to stare at the Doctor, as if silently ordering her to start attending to their injuries as soon as possible so he could simply _get the hell out of there_ already, or fear sudden death by his hands.

The middle-aged woman groaned in despair, grabbing Squall's arm and pulling him to one of the infirmary beds. "I should have known it was something like this! Why do I even bother treating you two anymore? I know you'll just come back with the same wounds not a month later!"

Squall let himself fall down on the bed, sitting with his elbows against his knees and face resting against his palms. The lump of a boy shifted under the immaculate covers on the mattress to Squall's right, sitting up slowly.

"Commander!" he squeaked, his eyes widening in a horrified manner.

The bushy haired man glanced up slowly, raising an eyebrow at the cadet, whose eyes were moving back and forth across the many injuries adorning his pale features.

"I'm so sorry; this is all my fault!" the dark haired cadet exclaimed, shaking his head. Squall ignored him and hid his face back inside his palms while Dr Kadowaki proceeded to unzip his leather jacket to inspect his injuries.

"Don't sweat it, kid… _he_ started it…" a low baritone said from behind the curtains.

The injured youth glanced up, startled. Seifer pushed the curtains apart and strolled over to the third bed, smirking down at Squall.

The SeeD commander glanced back up at the cadet, raising one of his eyebrows, cynically. "You must be Zack…" the stormy eyed man straightened up, raising his arms to let the Doctor remove his jacket completely.

Squall ignored the gasp coming from Zack as he assumed his eyes had fallen on the deep gash on the skin of his bitten collarbone. He sat quietly through each sting of the disinfectant the Doctor rubbed against his wounds none too gently. He had gone under these procedures a thousand times before and was more than accustomed to them. Dr Kadowaki stitched the large wound above his collarbone instead if using any curative magic because the effect of magic weakened your natural physical resistance to pain or injuries… or so the Doctor had told him a hundred times before. Squall simply believed that this was her way of showing her discontent with his and Seifer's attitude. She had always proceeded this way before after each of their fights.

She bandaged all of Squall's more serious wounds and finally stood up when the elderly woman ordered him to.

"Seifer, you idiot!" Zack barked, glaring over at Seifer, who had thrown his trench coat on the chair beside his bed, his Gunblade resting neatly on top of it, and was now laying comfortably on his bed, eyes closed, arms folded lazily behind his head his many injuries seemingly unnoticed.

The large blond opened an eye, looking at Zack from the corner of his eyes. "Hey, like I told you… _he _started it…" and with that, he closed his eye, smirking. "Besides, I'm a victim too here… or maybe you didn't notice just how badly bruised I am, right now?" he whined sarcastically.

"I will need to discuss with you, once you've completely recovered," Squall told Zack, completely ignoring the other man's comments, which had obviously meant to irritate him. The Commander had finally gotten the perfect chance to get rid of the bane of his existence… but had refused, without even knowing why, once the Headmistress had suggested the solution. Not only had he done this, but he'd _also_ taken the **_blame_** to assure himself that the arrogant man would not be expelled.

He would never hear the end of this.

"I'll register you for an appointment and we'll meet as soon as possible," he instructed, looking at Zack over his shoulder as he reached for his leather jacket.

"See, Zack? My appointment went perfectly well…" Seifer began, smirking at Squall. The Commander put his on jacket, careful not to damage his bandages, turned around completely and strolled out of the infirmary.

Oh yeah, he would _definitely_ never hear the end of this.

-----------

The next day, Squall found himself forced to stay in his quarters doing what he most despised in this world.

Nothing.

Xu had ordered him to take several days off, partly because he simply looked like shit and because she had a wicked sense of humor for she knew _perfectly well_ how to punish her Commander, even though she'd never had the opportunity to do so before now. Squall strongly believed - was almost certain even - the woman had even taken pleasure in the "honor" that was being the first person to punish someone with such a flawless personal file as of today. Somehow, his numerous fights with Seifer had never before gotten him in trouble… other than his own injuries, that is. Perhaps Cid _had_ been a little soft with him after all...

Sighing, the brown haired young man shifted atop his unmade mattress.

This wasn't like him.

He _always _made his bed. He _wasn't _lazy and never before had he _ever_ stayed in his pajamas for any other reason than to sleep.

Blame him... but god damn his body hurt... oh, Hyne, it fucking _ached_...

Squall groaned both in pain and annoyance, shifting onto his stomach as he pushed his face deeply into his pillow.

And now he was becoming foul mouthed _too_.

This _definitely _wasn't like him.

Fuck, next he'd be watching TV, pigging out on a bowl of chips and drinking beer.

But his body just _throbbed_ so bad...

He moaned again, now shifting back on his sore back, nearly feeling the urge to sob at the terrifying mental images.

He was going to _kill_ Seifer – no - **_Xu_**for daring to restrain him to this...

Whenever he could _walk_ again, that is...

In his agony, more psychological than physical it had now become, he wondered how he had ever managed to come back to his quarters, or more importantly how he could ever have allowed Xu to force this upon him. He would be forever traumatized by the visions of his becoming a couch-potato.

Distantly, he heard the hydraulic doors of his quarters, then followed by those of his room, swishing open, but before he could even react, Zell's grinning face had appeared much too closely above his own.

"BOOYA!" he suddenly shouted, without even distancing himself of Squall's face, which caused the latter to shove his palm roughly against his opened mouth as he thrust the

blond's head away from him forcefully and sat up sharply, all the while attempting to ignore the burning of his every muscle. Through his longish, disheveled hair, Squall scowled up at the bumbling man before him, whom had already began swatting the air cheerfully as he grinned down at his friend wolfishly. Zell continued his fighting movements for several moments as the young man sitting quietly on the bed continued to glare more and more fiercely at him, perhaps hoping that the furious gesture alone would disintegrate the martial artist.

Apparently, his plan wasn't very effective because Squall drew a long, ragged breath, vainly trying to calm his extremely volatile temper only minutes later. "Stop that!" he snapped impatiently.

His grin widening, Zell lowered his fists to his side. "I heard about your fight with Seifer by Dr Kadowaki when I handed one of the kids over to her. She warned me that it was bad, but DAYUM, you look like HAYULL, man!"

Squall's stormy scowl deepened murderously, both at the mention of the events of the day before and Zell's annoying attempt at the retarded accent. The tattooed martial artist quickly brought his hands before himself, defensively,

"Calm down, dude..." the scowl simply deepened further and Zell took a fearful step back, hands held up in defense and glancing around the room nervously as if searching for the quickest path of escape. A light seemed to dawn upon him as his baby blue eyes quickly glanced back at his friend. "How about I make you coffee, eh?"

Surprisingly, the flame inside Squall's grey pools somewhat diminished and he slowly stood up from his bed, making his way into the kitchen, followed closely by his spiky haired friend.

"What do you want, Zell?" he grumbled as he reached the counter of his kitchen, grabbing the electric kettle there harshly and filling it with water to boil. It was instantly pulled away from his hands by Zell's strong grip. Squall glared at him but the blond's smile simply widened once more.

"Aaaaaw, are you pouting?" he mocked.

The SeeD commander simply sighed in annoyance and walked back to his room, feeling quite self-conscious, if not vulnerable, in the presence of another when still dressed in his long sleeved and legged, black pajamas. In fact, he blamed the clothes for making the morning - no, the entire _day -_ so unbearable.

Death to the cursed pajamas!

Ha...

Squall nearly laughed aloud at his pathetic train of thoughts, just as he slipped on his daily attire.

He glanced at his... _pouting_... reflection and scowled at it for proving Zell right. When he made his way back, he was greeted with the sight of flustered Zell whom was frantically blowing at a steaming cup of coffee. Squall raised an eyebrow at him mockingly, before sitting down at the table in front of his blond friend where his own cup awaited. Sighing contentedly, he gulped down the dark, burning liquid.

No milk, no sugar… just how he loved it.

He almost closed his eyes in contentment as the substance poured down his throat, warming his insides as it traveled through his system and relaxed his every tense muscles, almost soothing his soul from all his earlier torments, (he was a caffeine addict, so what?) when his regained state of peace was abruptly destroyed by loud, slurping noises.

Out of his appeased daze, his stormy eyes shot towards the sitting young man in front of him, glaring viciously. The hyperactive blond didn't even notice as he continued to slurp down his undoubtedly saccharine coffee, eyes closed. He downed the entire contents of the cup in one long swig, sighing loudly and putting back the mug heavily on the table as he finished.

Squall's heated stare did not relent, but Zell had yet to notice it as he glanced around the room, fanning his hand in front of his face quickly.

"Whew!" he whistled. "Man, is it hot in here or what?"

Squall heard the distant voice of his conscience in his mind, shouting a long string of enraged curses Zell's way, but of course, his body remained motionless as he sat there, simply able to glare reproachfully at his friend, when really, he wasn't even sure he could call him that, considering the fact that his every impulse only demanded that he stranglekickbashsliceramtearbashagainstalwall him…

Zell yawned, stretching widely and adopted an almost lecherously rude posture sitting on his chair with his legs widely spread and his upper arms and elbows slumped backwards against the back of the chair, as he finished extending his limbs. Squall could almost visualize the scratching of balls coming soon. He shuddered… and hoped to _Hyne_ he better not be right.

"So, ganna tell me what happened with Seifer?" Zell asked cheerfully as Squall eyed him in disgust.

"We fought," he answered bluntly.

The short blond man took an amazed expression, eyes and mouth widening in surprise. "No _shit_," he said sarcastically, his expression falling to an annoyed one. "I meant what _caused _the whole thing, wise guy."

Squall blinked at him, staying silent for several seconds before adding. "None of your business."

Zell suddenly stood up, banging his fists against the table. "Come ON, man! I just made you _coffee_ and this is how you repay me?" the blond whined childishly in a high-pitched tone unfit for any man.

Squall blinked boredly. "I never asked for any…"

Zell pouted angrily shoving his hands in his backside pockets.

"Tch…" he began pacing in front of the table, muttering angrily as Squall stared at him, almost amused.

"So, did you woop his ass good?" Zell asked excitedly, stalling in his pacing. Squall stared blankly at him.

"Come _oooooon_ give me some details here, you know, the juicy bits!" the light brown haired man looked away, sighing with disinterest and folded his arms across his chest.

"Dude, why'd you wanna make it so private, anyways? The rivalry between you guys isn't exactly hushed business, and, if _you _hadn't noticed, everyone's talking about you guys already because half the students saw both of _your_ bloodied **_asses_** walking back to the infirmary yesterday."

Underneath his crossed arms, Squall's hands tightened into fists. Why couldn't that annoying brat leave him alone? Couldn't he just see he was trying to forget the events of the day before ; how, even now, he was forcing every image of the brutal fight not to resurface because he hated himself for feeling the rush of adrenaline inside his veins begin to boil once more?

This was all Zell's fault…

Wait, now it was Zell's fault?

Groaning, Squall laid his elbows against the table, taking his face in his hands and rubbing his palms against it.

He'd gone from lazy, to foul mouthed and now to _childish_.

He usually _hated_ thinking so _fucking_ much… but today was the worst he'd ever experienced.

Would suicide be considered cowardly of him?

He suddenly felt a repetitive thudding against the top of his head and as he spread his fingers to glance up through them, he saw that Zell had walked to his side and that it was the blond's knuckles knocking against his head he had felt.

"Knock knoooock! Someone still in there?"

Squall squatted the hand away sharply, glaring up at the man whom would soon find himself to be _very _dead.

It wouldn't be his fault really; the bastard was _truly _asking for it.

Squall briefly wondered if the new term "thoroughly annoyed homicide" would convince the jury that he simply couldn't have helped it… completely out of his control…

Squall shook his head desolately, standing up from his seat and turning his back to his once-called friend. "You're annoying… go away," he said in an uninterested tone, not even paying any attention to the shorter man as he walked towards his room.

"What you say? _HUH_!" Zell began angrily. The SeeD Commander felt even more irritated by the shorter man's outburst; Zell always felt everything with a maddening intensity. He needed to deal with him quickly, before he caused permanent damage. Squall looked over his shoulder, glaring.

"Go _away_. Just leave me alone." With that, the stormy eyed young man continued towards his room. This was the best way to make him leave quickly; ignore him.

"You know what I think?" Zell suddenly exploded just as Squall had reached the door to his room. "You're obsessed, baby, that's what you are!" he exclaimed, pointing his finger sharply at his friend. The SeeD Commander looked over his shoulder once more.

"You _both_ are; Seifer and you…"

Squall's jaw twitched, but he otherwise remained expressionless.

"Both one 'n the same, 'cause really, there ain't any difference between you and him… not much anyways."

Squall's eyes narrowed. Zell smiled knowingly.

"You're in denial. You won't admit it, but I bet you that you probably enjoy these fights as much as Seifer does; you crave them… you won't run away or ignore him, because you don't _want_ to! You love it too much…"

Squall stared at the blond man for several moments, struggling with all the thoughts, memories and emotions that Zell's words had evoked inside him and began racing through his mind so fast that he couldn't even begin to recognize any of them.

"Whatever…" he finally dismissed calmly, turning around and walking back inside his room, leaving the enraged blond behind.

He might have never been able to ignore Seifer Almasy…

…but he sure as hell could ignore _this_ blondy…

---------

Seifer walked out of the infirmary wearing a satisfied smirk. He was dressed in those awful, uncomfortable Garden uniforms; had _four more _useless classesto attend to after lunch time; had nothing better than _hot-dogs_ to eat (and Hyne only knew how much he despised the greasy fuckers) but somehow, it all didn't seem so bad today.

Oh no, nothing had ever quite seemed to lighten his mood just as well as Zell Dincht's grimacing, furious expression always had, because, as much as hot-dogs disgusted Seifer, he would more than kindly buy the last remaining ones if, say, aforementioned Chicken Wuss were right behind him in line for the Cafeteria and was just _dying_ to eat them.

And that's what he'd had the pleasure to do today.

Seifer brought one greasy hot-dog to his mouth, swallowing it down as quickly as he could manage, wanting the torture to end as soon as possible. His smirk did not vanish though as he once again pictured the short blond man in his mind, struggling to punch him once he had noticed that Seifer had bought the last of his precious hot-dogs.

It hadn't been Seifer's fault really. He was well aware what infirmary food tasted like and even _hot-dogs_ were better and Zack, who was still imprisoned to Kadowaki's care, needed to be fed. The tall man had had no choice but to buy them… for the dark haired youth's sake. He was still just a growing boy, after all! Seifer's entertainment at Zell's anger had _absolutely _nothing to do with it...

The memories of Zack's assault were far away from his mind now.

Ah, the wonders of the Patented Angry Zell Stance… it could do wonders to the soul. Seifer almost felt the urge to recommend the man on starting his own therapy sessions.

He chuckled softly at the mental images as he continued to make his way through the bumbling crowd of students in Garden's hallways.

Three days had passed since his meeting with the SeeD Commander. He was still bruised, but he'd lived through much worst. Seifer had gotten his fair amount of thorough ass kicking in his time as Ultimecia's Puppet. He remembered his last one at the hands of Squall and scoobies - now _that_ one, he'd felt for months.

The tall blond reflexively brushed his tongue against his teeth, smirking.

_**That** injury's sure ganna be a bitch for a looooooong while, Squally…_

Seifer made his way to towards the stairs leading to the elevator, deciding to take the long path towards the dormitories. Just as he passed a bench near the fountains, he stopped, deciding to enjoy his amusement a little while longer. Letting himself fall lazily on the cushioned benches, arms sprawled widely against the railing behind them, he stared at the crowd of students walking back and forth before him.

Somehow, in his several weeks back at Garden, the cadets had become accustomed to his presence and had learned to ignore him, or at least, tried to act as if they did. The emerald eyed man wasn't so easily fooled, but he was quite happy that they'd all finally stopped staring at him. He had trouble controlling his temper enough as it was, they couldn't have expected him to endure much more, even if he _was_ supposed to act properly because of that wretched promise he'd made to Xu; it wasn't his fault if the brats were so annoying.

He really was an idiot for being so determined to become a SeeD.

Pride and honor definitely sucked.

Pity he actually _reeked_ of both of the damned things.

He glanced at his surroundings, at the fish designed fountains behind him, at the wide, tall walls of Balamb Garden that were so familiar to him. He let all the loud noises of the bustling students around him, the rush of water, the chattering voices wash over him, closing his eyes. Sighing contentedly, he laid his head back against the railing.

Hyne, he was so glad to be back. No matter what every one else could say or think, he was back where he belonged… _home…_

The fact that he hadn't realized until now was probably included in the attributes of The Idiot he reminded himself he was. He enjoyed his moment of peace, engulfed in the presence and sounds of hundreds of others for several moments, his mind devoid any thought or emotion other than happenings around him. He was most comfortable in crowded places like this, his thoughts drowned by the ruckus. He'd come to appreciate silence in the last months after Ultimecia's demise, but noise and large masses would always remain more enjoyable. They reminded him of the person he had once been; boisterous, loud… _alive_…

He was still most of those things, but sometimes, he could almost feel the corrosion of his personality. He hated being lost, but whenever he allowed himself to think properly, he felt his mind trapping him in an irresolvable labyrinth.

He felt as if he could have spent the rest of day here, might have even forgotten to go to his classes even, if it wasn't for the strange tingling he suddenly felt upon his face. He felt… watched? Strange… the students never stared at him so directly, and this definitely felt _very_ direct.

Frowning angrily, he straightened his head, already cursing the annoying brat that had dared disturb _him_ before he even opened his eyes.

And then he _did _open them.

And he was even _more_ annoyed.

He was greeted with the sight of a young, raven haired, Asian woman, squatting down to his eye level, her warm brown eyes staring interestedly at him as she smiled with the same, sweet grin that always seemed to be plastered across her face.

Seifer raised an eyebrow smirking. "And here I thought the whole "Psycho Sorceress' Knight" phase of my life had scared all those groupies shitless already…"

The cheerful girl straightened up, hands folded behind her back and head cocked to the side. Seifer knew he would feel the urge to murder the woman growing inside him in a few seconds as he noticed the very discrete mischievous glint of her brown orbs.

"Gee, Seifer… from my point of view, you sure looked like a nice lackey. Just thought I'd stop by and see if you were still unemployed…"

Yes, he could definitely feel his murderous intents flowing through him like wild fire now, coming back to life from their long, almost seven months sleep. His rage only kept multiplying at the woman's expression; how could she keep such an innocent and sweet façade?

The girl was _evil_, adorable **_or_** not…

And she was _definitely_ playing one of her dirty magic tricks, sorceress hypnosis-thingy, because, for the life of him, Seifer could only glare up at her silently as she continued to smile down at him.

They stared at each other for a few moments, until finally, Seifer's eyes narrowed in annoyance. "Just _how long_ do you plan on staring at me?"

She shrugged, grinning. "As long as it takes…"

Seifer raised both eyebrows before laying his head back against the railing, closing his eyes once more as he smirked mockingly. "Now, we've been through this before, Rin," he sighed. "Sorry, babe, but no matter how long you're going to wait, I'm _never_ gonna have sex with you…"

Seifer felt a sudden satisfaction at seeing the petite woman's ivory cheeks suddenly flush in anger as her hands flew from behind her, to rest on her hips as she stomped her feet heavily on the group. Before he could react, her right foot had swung upwards and he could not stop the painful blow from knocking the part of his body where the bitch _knew_ he was most sensitive…

… his left knee…

Choking down on a long, loud, miserable groan, he bolted up straight on his seat, but he resisted the urge to draw his leg up and fold it against his chest, holding his knee up to his face as he sobbed against it because of the searing pain that was now pulsating in the length of his entire body, like a resonating burn. For one of the few times in his life, he truly despised being tall and cursed to hell his early and long growth spurts; they were the reason for the weakness in his knees. Why the hell had he ever dared sharing his most embarrassing secret with this wicked entity of the underworld?

Seifer emerald eyes refocused in front of him as the pain finally dulled slightly and glared up at Rinoa's warm brown eyes. He could see the right corner of her lips twitch slightly, as if repressing a smirk.

See?

Evil…

"Will you just fuckin' tell me what you came here for?" Seifer finally growled, no longer able to keep his arrogant façade as the annoyance and pain won over his restraint.

Rinoa's smile widened happily. Seifer had a feeling he would be regretting this.

The Asian young woman suddenly turned half around, staring down at Seifer over her shoulder.

"Walk with me?" she asked innocently.

Seifer frowned in thought. He had two options; 1)stay here and suffer at the woman's sadistic tendencies - commonly known as sweetness - until he exploded and gave in to her request anyways, and that, only after he'd been unable to stop himself from committing several homicidal acts… or 2) accept the woman's proposal and STILL suffer the sadistic tendencies, but with a hope of eventually being released of the unbearable torture once she'd had what she wanted.

Somehow, these choices didn't seem very fair to him.

Seifer groaned angrily. "Fucking hell…" and he stood up, glaring down at the much smaller woman as he passed her and continued walking forward. He heard a cheerful cooing noise behind him before Rinoa joined him, walking beside him.

They'd reached the Quad's fountain when the raven haired girl finally spoke.

"I heard about what happened with Squall," she stated more seriously, stopping her footsteps. Several of the passing students gave them strange looks, continuing on their way out.

Seifer's steps faltered slightly a few paces away in front of her, smirking. The woman frowned angrily at him, seeing his expression as he turned to face her.

"… So?" he scoffed. "I sure as hell hope you didn't rush over here to comfort me over it…" he cocked his head to the side in mock thoughtfulness. "… although, puberty boy might need it."

Rinoa rolled her eyes. "I was already on my way here when Zell called me; we've kept contact ever since I left for Timber, after the break up."

Seifer's smirk widened. "Hyne help us, there aren't only Knights anymore, but Sorceress' Messengers too; you planning on creating your own mail service, soon?"

Rinoa's hands were raised to her hips again. "Will you shut up, just for a sec? Jeez, you'd think he'd get enough of hearing himself talk…"

Seifer folded his arm against his chest, staring down at the woman haughtily.

"It's not really surprising, you know… it's not like you guys haven't fought before-" Rinoa glared at the tall blond's derisive snort. "- but what Zell told me doesn't make sense. I'd really like to know what the hell's going on."

For some reason, Seifer suddenly felt even more irritated. He would have usually taken every chance he'd gotten to be able to brag about "how badly" he'd kicked the Commander's ass three days ago… but now, he wanted to strangle everyone for wanting to stick their noses where they didn't belong. What the hell did it matter? They fought… they both ended up bruised… the end. Was there something so entertaining about their fights that everyone needed to know about? This was **_his_** and **_Squall's _**rivalry… for no other to understand.

Seifer frowned in confusion.

Woah… had that seemed a bit possessive?

Of course not… why the hell would he have been possessive about something Squall-related.

Why did things have to be so messed up when it came to Leonhart?

"How the fuck is this any of your business, Rinoa?" Seifer snapped before he could even stop himself. **_Holy fuck… did I just say that?_**

Apparently Rinoa's reaction was much similar to his own train of thoughts, from the shocked expression that suddenly graced her serious expression. She gaped at him for several moments before smiling… amused?

"_What_?" he snapped, her smile unnerving his already volatile temper.

"Have you been spending more time with Squall since I last saw you?" she teased.

"I thought the ass kicking would have been enough to answer that stupid question," he grumbled, turning around to finally start walking again, this time, towards Garden's exit. He heard Rinoa's quick, small footsteps rushing to catch up with his long, hurried strides.

"Heeeeeey,wait up!" she whined as Seifer reached down the last step of the stairs just before the fountain. He glanced at her over his shoulder in annoyance before turning around sharply and waiting for her to catch up as he dug his hand inside his uniform jacket for the pack of cigarettes he always hid there. His nerves definitely needed it; he doubted tearing off a woman's head with his own hands would look well on his record, even one as vice and merciless as this one.

Just as he'd lit and taken the first drag out of it, she finally stepped in front of him, slightly out of breath. The young Asian woman stared strangely at the stick in his mouth.

"You know those things are bad for you, right?" she merited a murderous glare for her question. She shook her head, smiling at the man's antics.

"You've changed, Seifer…" she said quietly, staring away from him and off in front of her.

Seifer simply raised an eyebrow questioningly, doubtful. She smiled, seeing the action out of the corner of her eye.

"Zell also spoke to that student, Zack, after trying to get something out of Squall…" she glanced back up at Seifer, smiling as she saw the man's expression becoming slightly more serious.

"The Seifer I used to know never was an evil bastard; an insufferable, arrogant _**asshole**_, yeah, but you were never bad," shegrinned mishievously at the man's snort."Still, I never would have thought you would have defended and taken care of Zack, the way he described to Zell …" her dark eyes fogged, a gentle, fond smile gracing her lips, as if reminiscing good memories. "Well, maybe you've always been that way, since you _did_ rush all the way to Timber for me, when you found out only three SeeD members had been sent to help our cause." Her smile faltered then. "And then your nightmare began… because in a way, if you hadn't come for me, you might never have fallen under Ultimecia's control."

Seifer almost felt terrified at the hidden guilt he could feel behind the woman's words. She couldn't feel this way. How could she even think such things for someone like him? He was just about to slap her back into some sense when the woman shook her head forcefully and looked up at him, smiling.

"But enough of that… I was still really, pleasantly surprised when I heard what you'd done for Zack. You'd known me for some time, before you actually did this for me, but this guy… you've only known him for a few weeks, right?"

Seifer nodded quietly, taking the last drag of his cigarette before letting it drop to the ground and stomping it on it gently.

"That's why I think you've changed. You're still you and that's to be expected from a stubborn idiot like you, but I think everyone's glad about it; all those that have been able to see you again as of yet, that is…"

Seifer felt a sudden warmth spread through his chest and almost felt embarrassed. "What are you; a counselor, now, or something?" the tall blond mocked snidely, to hide his strange emotions. He hadn't ever felt anything similar to this before and he didn't like it one bit.

Rinoa punched his chest softly, drawing his attention back to her face.

"Oh no, I'm much worst, Almasy…" she said, smiling evilly. "I'm a friend…" she almost whispered, her smile filling with warmth.

The tall man felt an unbearable sting in his eyes and a clenching in his chest as he stared down at Rinoa's dark, trust-filled orbs. He would have liked to hate her at that moment, to feel the urge to hurt her, but none of those emotions came. She must have been using her Sorceress-hypnosis-thingy again, because for the life of him, he couldn't look away. The slight burning in his eyes became unbearable and finally woke him from his trance as he turned away from her abruptly.

For Hyne's sake… what next? Was he going to hug her silly?

He shuddered and rubbed his palms against his eyes.

Much better now…

He ignored the soft chuckles comingfrom behind him.

"So, what happened with Squall… did it have anything to do with what happened to Zack?" Rinoa enquired gently.

Seifer found himself nodding before he could even stop himself. "Do you know why those bastards beat him up?"

Rinoa hesitated for a few seconds. "Is it true that he's gay?"

Seifer nodded once more. "I wanted the fuckers that did this to him out of Garden as soon as possible before I dealt with them myself, so I invited myself into Squall's office." His fists tightened on his sides. "_Ice Cube_ acted like he usually does; like he didn't give a flying fuck that a mere kid nearly got _killed_ for being his true self. I got really pissed and did what _I _usually do; said what I had to say to piss _him _off… the results? Well, you and I both know them…" his serious expression was suddenly broken by a lecherous smirk. "…unless you'd rather have a closer look at my ass to see more properly."

"Don't flatter yourself…" Rinoa grimaced in disgust. She then sighed. "And for the record, I doubt Squall didn't care. These procedures, no matter how importantly they need to be dealt with, still have steps, rules to abide to, Seifer… he couldn't just kick them out or act like you would have done; he's the Commander of SeeD forces."

Seifer turned around roughly, emerald eyes livid. "The fucker _didn't _care…" he hissed furiously. "He acted as if the whole thing wasn't worth his time; so I woke him up by reminding him that he and Zack weren't so different," he added with a note of sadistic satisfaction in his tone.

Rinoa blinked up at him, suddenly less calm. "You _what!"_

Seifer lowered his face closer to hers. "Wouldn't you know _that_ personally?" he whispered, smirking.

Rinoa glared threateningly at him, pushing him backwards as forcefully as her slender arms could manage. "You really _are_ a fucking idiot, Almasy!" she snapped.

The large young man blinked, surprised.

Rinoa didn't cuss. _Ever_.

Hyne, was_ he _everin_** deep**_ shit.

"Do you even _know_ what goes through Squall's mind every God Damn day? Can you even_start_ _IMAGINING _just how much he struggles not to go _insane_ half of the time?" she nearly shrieked. "Seifer, no matter how much you think you understand, you obviously _don't_, because you would have known that Squall wasn't unaffected to Zack's situation. He probably forced himself not to be, because… to him, what would be the point? What would it bring _anyone_ to allow themselves to feel rage? Do you think that it would help Zack; do you think that breaking doors and tearing apart everything you can put your hands on would help Zack feel better?"

Seifer stared at the angry woman, listening through her furious, yet worthwhile tirade quietly.

"Being led by rage and hate simply lowers you down to the level of those people you despise; the ones who almost killed Zack. Acting cool and calm, to try and understand and take the best decision was what Squall was trying to do, Seifer! He doesn't want to care about other people, because he's had it fucking hard in his childhood! _You_ out of all people should at least know _that_ much. He doesn't want people to rely on him because he doesn't _know_ how to act… but he's trying…" Rinoa inhaled deeply and Seifer almost thought she was about to calm down, when she began again, even louder and angrier than before. "And the only thing _you_ managed to do is bring up _another_ thing to fuck around with his head!"

Her words almost felt like a sharp knife digging forcefully through his heart. Had his words affected the other man that much? He hadn't seemed very affected… yes, he had thrown himself at him and they had begun fighting more savagely than they ever h - oh…

Realisation felt like a second sharp knife slashing through his abdomen harder, deeper this time.

He didn't want to think about this. He didn't want to feel guilty… he _wasn't_. The sinking feeling crawling up his chest was just… was just…

Nothing!

He wasn't feeling anything! Squall had deserved every god damn word that had escaped Seifer's mouth. So what if he never thought twice before speaking? It didn't matter! It wasn't his problem! He'd never taken back his words and he wouldn't do so now.

Unless you counted the time he'd apologized for his actions the day he had surprised Squall and Laguna in that indisposing position. But that wasn't the same… Squall hadn't deserved anything he'd done that day.

Squall was his rival, nothing else.

He hadn't even realized that he'd been staring at the ground, eyes wide, for several moments, fists painfully tight on his sides, when he felt a soft grip on his forearm, squeezing it gently yet firmly.

"You know what you need to do, Seifer," Rinoa said, no longer any traces of anger in her voice, only compassion.

Squall had understood him completely that night, several weeks before, when Seifer had cried on his shoulder, unable to contain the pain he'd restrained for months; the guilt, the fear, the self-hatred because of his sinful actions by Ultimecia's side he'd locked inside his heart had finally flowed free. He'd let Seifer have physical contact, warmth; he'd let him feel that he wasn't disgusted, that _he_ didn't fear him, no matter how much he despised being relied on; no matter how uncomfortable he felt to physical closeness; no matter what Seifer had done to him in the past. He'd let Seifer feel that in the end he was still _there_… his trusted rival…

Squall had confided his secret in him. He'd shared his fears and feelings in return, perhaps to show him that they were equals. Their enmity could not remain if one felt weaker than the other. They'd never spoken about it ever since, but they had quietly agreed that even after that, their relationship would stay the same; the only stability in both their lives.

Had he betrayed Squall now? By acting like he had three days ago?

Seifer roughly shook Rinoa's hand off his arm.

Why was he thinking all of this?

He didn't care.

He hadn't done anything wrong.

Squall deserved it.

Seifer turned away from Rinoa and straightened his head and shoulders, regaining his usual proud posture.

"I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, Rinoa. Leonhart deserved all I said _and_ did to him… _everything,_" he hissed, without so much as looking over his shoulder as he walked away. The bell echoed through the Garden just as he reached the Gates that led inside. For once, he was looking forward to attending classes.

----------

TBC

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**_Author's note : _**_OH MY GAWD! SQUALL AND SEIFER ARE SOOOO STUPID! Right? I bet that's what you're all saying right about now lol. Yes… they are… stupid, stubborn, proud men! What ever will we do with em…_

_Any suggestions?__ Should we spank them? Tie them up by their feets?_

_Or even better… leave them locked up in a room together… naked…_

_MWAHAHAHAHA! _

_You know, I really like writing Rinoa like this. I never hated her in the game, like so many people did. I mean, sure, she was annoying with all her trying to get into Squall's head and make him talk... but she was a nice person. I like making her do evil things... or just writing Seifer's thoughts on her. This whole chapter was just so awesome to write!_

_Anyways…__ I hope you liked this!_

_See you soon, hopefully!_

_Please review!_


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